The Things They Carry
by KD Skywalker
Summary: Everyone carries secrets that they hold close to the heart. Some more than others...Focuses on all the Avengers - but mainly Ironman, Hawkeye and a little bit of Captain America
1. Chapter 1

_AN and Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers….just borrowing them for a bit. Anyways, this is set a few days after the end of the Avengers movie – so enjoy and feedback is always welcome._

* * *

**Chapter One:**

There was very little that Tony Stark kept to himself. Basically his life was an open book – given that he was a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist and he was an Avenger. Being such a public figure had its ups and downs, but after his latest near death experience at the hands of the Chitauri, there was very little that Tony Stark wanted to do besides spend time with Pepper Potts and begin rebuilding Stark Tower into a new home base for the Avengers, if they ever needed one.

Yet there was one other thing that was bugging him.

When he had been on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier and had downloaded the encrypted files for Phase 2, he had noticed that there was another encrypted file tied to his name. It had not downloaded completely before Fury had cut him off, but the part that he had managed to download only revealed a name - Emma Kate Stark.

What business did S.H.I.E.L.D. have with his deceased little sister? She died over twenty years ago with his parents in the car crash. She was rarely mentioned in any of the obituaries about his parents and very few people had known that Howard and Maria Stark had a second child. Emma had been the miracle child in his parent's eyes, born after trying for that second child for so long. She was only seven when the car crash happened.

He couldn't wait to have this little talk with Fury. So until then, he would keep the secret of his little sister from everyone for just a while longer.

* * *

Nick Fury was making his way towards the bridge of the helicarrier when Clint Barton, who had returned from seeing Thor and Loki off in New York City a few days ago, stopped him. "Sir, is it true that we can take time off if we would like?"

"Yes, the last group is leaving in a few hours."

"Can I join them, sir?"

"Without a doubt. In fact, I don't want to see you back on this helicarrier until two weeks have gone by. Have I made myself clear?"

For the first time in a long time, Clint Barton could almost smile. "Yes sir," he said turning and hurrying back to his quarters to back so that he could head back to the mainland. There wasn't anywhere else that he wanted to be at that time.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer and AN: **I don't own 'em, I'm just borrowing them for a bit to ease my muse! Thanks for all those who put this story on alert, but I would loooooveeee some reviews – please? And yes, LVB, Avengers did feed Kappie - but I think she's been chillin' with you in Australia for far too long!_

_Enjoy and please let me know what you think!_

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**Chapter Two:**

Steve Rogers slowly made his way down the Brooklyn sidewalk. Parts of the neighborhood were vaguely familiar to him, while other parts weren't. Finally he came upon a place that really was familiar – an old bookshop that his mother used to take him to when he was a boy. He smiled to himself as he pushed the door opened and walked inside. All at once the smell of old leather bound books, wood and dust filled his nose. This was home. He loved books.

"Can I help you find anything?"

Steve turned to look at a young woman who was holding three large leather bound books in her hands as she stood on a stepladder. "Umm, history. Books on recent history," he said.

The young woman nodded before she slid the books she was holding back into place on the shelf. "Now what sort of history are we talking about? Ancient? Medieval? Civil War era?" she asked as she began walking towards another section of the shop. She stopped in front of a long bookcase.

"More like recent," he answered moving next to her.

"How recent?"

"Between the end of World War 2 and today."

"I don't have anything like that at this shop. But my shop in midtown has more modern books, like what you are looking for," the shopkeeper said turning to look at him. "Let's go back up front and I'll get you a card with the other address on it."

Steve followed her back to the front counter. She walked around it and pulled out a card from underneath it. "Here we go," she said handing it to him. "I know that that address is near the damage area from that huge battle last week but I promise you that the stop is opened for business."

Steve took the card and read it:

_**Books Galore!**_

_**Emma Carter, Owner**_

_**With two locations to proudly serve you!**_

Seeing her last name, he did a double take. Deep down, his stomach flip flopped. Peggy Carter. God he missed her. He had to know, he had to ask.

"Just out of curiosity, ma'am, are you related to a Peggy Carter?"

"She was my aunt. She passed away about six years ago. Why do you ask?"

* * *

Tony stood in front of three gravestones bearing the name 'STARK' above them. The angel stature that served as their monument had seen better days. To Tony, it looked to be weeping. He took a deep breath as he bent over and picked the weeds away from the gravestones and gently placed a bouquet of sunflowers against his sister's gravestone. Today would have been her birthday.

"Thought I would find you here," an all too familiar voice said from behind him.

"Can't even have peace with the dead can I?" Tony said standing back up then turning to look at Nick Fury, director of S.H.E.I.L.D.

"Come on we need to talk."

"Right here seems like a good enough place for me." Tony said standing his ground.

"You might want to be sitting down for this one, Stark."

"How come?"

"Your sister is alive." Fury said handing him a data pad. Tony stared down in disbelief at the images that he was seeing. A young woman, looking so much like his mother, was splattered all across it.

"I think now would be a good time for a drink."


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer and AN: I don't own 'em – just borrowing them for a bit. Thanks for the reviews! I love them! Well after thinking on this all day at work, I decided to make this story even a bit crazier – so enjoy!_

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**Chapter 3:**

"Where are you off to?" Natasha Romanoff asked as Clint Barton walked past her with a bag full of clothing slung over his shoulder and he was dressed in street clothes. They had been back on the helicarrier for a few days as it made repairs. Fury had told them if they wanted some time off they could have it. Natasha didn't have any family or friends to see during some down time and as far as she knew Clint didn't either.

"I'm going to the city for a few days. I just need to clear my head for a bit."

"Let me grab a few things and I'll come with you," she suggested, not really wanting him to go off on his own, especially after what Loki had done to him. She was still worried that there were residual effects.

"No it's alright. I need to do this on my own," he said walking away.

As she stood there and watched Clint walk away, she couldn't help but feel like there was something that he was hiding from her.

* * *

About an hour later, Clint had arrived the townhouse on NYC's Upper West Side that he knew so well. A single light was on. He smiled, knowing that they were home – perhaps even waiting for him. It had been so long since he had seen them, that it pained him not to be able to have more time with them. But they understood. Perhaps they were one of the few people who actually could.

In two quick steps, he had made it to the front door and was fumbling in his pocket for his key. Yet as usual, he was beat to the punch. The front door opened and Clint was immediately engulfed by two sets of arms – one around his neck and one around his hips. He could feel the warm tears against his neck and his stomach. The hardcore exterior of the S.H.E.I.L.D. agent Clint Barton melted away as he held the two most precious things in his life.

"Come on," he said picking up his 4 year old daughter, Audrey. He kissed her cheek and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "No tears, daddy is safe. Now let's get inside."

He smiled as he turned to look as her mother and wiped her tears away as well. He leaned over and gently kissed her lips before the family walked back into the house.

* * *

After a belated dinner and a long story time with daddy, Audrey was finally sound asleep. Clint watched from the doorway as Audrey snuggled in her bed with her pink teddy bear. A pair of arms snaked around his waist and encircled him from behind.

"I'm sorry for worrying the two of you," Clint softly said as he turned around.

"More like make me hysterical. But I never let Audrey know how I was feeling. Half of the time, I wanted to be out there with you, taking down those creatures. The other half just wanted you here with us."

Clint silenced her with a kiss as he gently pulled Audrey's door shut before sweeping her mother and carrying her down the hallway towards the living room. He set her down on the couch then sat down next to her, pulling her into his arms. "You don't know how much I wanted you there by my side as well, Em."

He paused.

"What aren't you telling me Clint?"

"Before all of that, I did some bad things. That guy – Loki – the one who caused all the problems, he brainwashed me to do some things for him. I attacked the helicarrier! I killed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents! Coulson is dead because of me!"

Emma could feel Clint loosing control of his emotions. She quickly turned around and knelt on the couch next to him and placed both hands on the sides of his face. "Clinton Barton look at me!" she demanded.

He wearily looked in her eyes. Her soft brown eyes seemed to comfort him. "Clint you were under Loki's influence. You can't blame yourself for what you did."

Clint nodded then looked away. "Fury called, didn't he?"

"You know that he did."

Clint sighed as he leaned back on the couch. "Yet all of this did get me thinking," he said a few minutes later.

"That's always scary." Emma said with a smiled on her face, trying to lighten the tension in the room. Clint smiled as he sat up and moved off the couch and knelt before Emma. Out of his pocket, he pulled a diamond in an antique white gold setting. "Emma Carter, will you marry me? I know that I've asked you before, and you said yes - but now I've got you a ring."

A smiled spread across her face as Emma, tearfully nodded yes. Clint slipped the ring on her finger then leaned up to kiss her. "Took you long enough," she whispered.

"Sorry, but the world needed saving a few times. You know how that goes."


	4. Chapter 4

_AN and Disclaimer: I don't own them…..just warping them to my satisfaction. Ok I should be in bed, but since I am only going on a field trip tomorrow and hopefully not having to coach a softball game, then I can go without a little bit of sleep. So enjoy and pretty, pretty please leave me some reviews! They are fuel for my soul!_

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**Chapter Four:**

Tony Stark sat back in his desk chair and glared at Nick Fury. "So you're telling me that my sister is still alive? After all this time. After all I've done for S.H.E.I.L.D. and the Avengers, you just are now telling me that my sister is alive!"

"It's a bit more difficult than that."

"How so? Because it seems that by these pictures she is happy and healthy." Tony said looking at the pictures on the data pad again.

"Healthy, yes. Happy, hopefully now she is." Fury said taking the data pad back and putting it in his inside jacket pocket.

"But why keep it from me?"

"She doesn't remember you, Stark."

"Excuse me?"

* * *

Clint lay on his side, watching Emma sleep in the early morning sun. There were very few things in this world that he wanted. The one thing he wanted most of all was for Emma and Audrey to always be safe. That was the entire reason that Emma had left S.H.I.E.L.D. when she had become pregnant and that was also why it had taken so long for him to ask her to marry him a second time. He had asked her several years ago and she had said that she would marry him when the time was right. And he felt that now was the perfect time.

He gently brushed several loose strands of hair out of her face before kissing her lips. He hated to waste a beautiful day, sleeping. "Good morning, beautiful," he whispered before kissing her again.

"Good morning," she said opening her eyes and stretching.

Emma curled up against Clint's chest and sighed. "What is it?" he asked.

"How many days are you staying this time?"

"I was ordered to take two weeks off. Get my head back on straight as Fury put it."

"So what were you thinking of doing on your time off?"

"Spending the entire time with you and Audrey. Also heading over to city hall and marrying you," he said, kissing the top of her head.

"Well let's get this day started then."

* * *

She had tracked him all the way to Central Park. She had to make sure that he was ok. Ever since Budapest, she had loved him even though she would never tell him that. They were too close as partners for something like that to come into play. She didn't want to ruin the chemistry that they already had. Besides, Clint never once showed any interest other than professional in her.

Clint's S.H.E.I.L.D. homing icon showed that he was near the center of Central Park, near the lake. She glanced all around for him, trying not to be spotted. Then something caught her ears.

His laughter.

"Higher daddy! Higher mommy!" a light brown haired girl with light blue eyes squealed happily between her parents as she swung back and forth between them as she was held up as the small family walked.

Natasha stood there in shock for a brief moment. There was absolutely no way possible that Clint Barton had a family. They told each other everything. Besides he had too gruff of a personality at times. Yet the scene in front of her told her otherwise.

What else had he not told her?

Tears began to sting her eyes as she turned away and made her way out of the park.

* * *

He checked the address on the card once again before entering the shop with the boarded up window front. Emma Carter wasn't joking when she had said that her bookshop was opened for business even though is was near the destruction center. There was a ton of people in here. He made his way through the crowd towards the front counter where a young woman with blonde hair and glasses was manning the cash register.

"can I help you sir?"

"Yes, I was wondering if Emma Carter was here today?"

"Emma!" the young woman yelled, "You have a customer!"

A few seconds later, Emma appeared out of a back storage room, dusting off her hands. "Yes, how can I help you?" she asked.

"I don't know if you remember me…"

"Oh yes, Mr. Modern History Who Asked About my Aunt," she said. "I took the liberty of pulling some books just in case you came by."

She knelt down and pulled a stack from the bottom of the shelf next to the cash register and placed it up on top of the counter. There were about 15 different books in the stack. "I wasn't sure what you exactly wanted. So I picked a mixture of it all."

Steve quickly glanced at all of them. "I'll take them all."

Emma nodded and had the young woman ring them up for Steve. "I hope that these help you in whatever you need." Emma said before turning to walk back into the backroom.

"Wait Ms. Carter, can I ask you something?"

Emma turned back around.

"Do you mind meeting sometime to talk about your aunt with me?"

Emma had been kept enough in the loop with things at S.H.I.E.L.D. to know who this really was and why he was asking about her aunt. It was clear after their talk yesterday. She picked up a small piece of paper and wrote down her phone number on it. "Call me in a few weeks after I've had a chance to get my shop back in order. Then we'll talk."

Steve thanked her and left the shop with a smile on his face. Emma glanced down at her watch. "Oh Kaleigh! I've got to go! I've got to go run a few errands before Clint and I are supposed to be a City Hall this afternoon."

"Sure thing Emma. We've got it all covered here."

Emma turned and walked back into the backroom to find Clint waiting for her just on the other side of the doorway. He glared at her. "What?" she asked.

"You do know who you gave your number to right?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because he asked about my Aunt Peggy. I remember the stories she used to tell me about him growing up. It's only to talk. Don't get you're bowstrings in a jumble."

He continued to glare.

"Seriously we're going to do this today," she said. "Fine two can play this game. What about you're new partner at S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha. Believe me, I know who she is. Fought her a time or two myself before you so easily managed to turn her to our side. How'd you do that? Hun? Wanna go there?"

Knowing that Natasha was a sore subject with Emma, Clint just pulled her close and gently kissed her lips. "I'm sorry. I just over reacted. You know some guys have all the luck and charm, while others have to work hard for what they've got."

Emma sighed. "Clinton Barton, what am I going to do with you?"

"Marry me this afternoon and make me the happiest man in the world," he answered stealing a kiss from her.


	5. Chapter 5

_AN and Disclaimer: I don't own them, I'm just borrowing them for a bit….please leave me some feedback. Pretty, pretty please? With sugar on top?_

* * *

**Chapter Five:**

"_She doesn't remember you, Stark."_

"_Excuse me?"_

"_Just that," Fury said, handing him a data file. "This will tell you everything that you need to know…"_

Tony sat in his dark office, replaying the conversation with Nick Fury over and over again in his head as he poured over the files that he had gotten from the head of S.H.E.I.L.D. From what he had been able to figure out was that in the car accident that had claimed his parents' lives, his sister had suffered a traumatic brain injury. And the reason that she had been hidden away from him was that as a result of the brain injury, she had sustained retrograde amnesia – everything about the first seven years of her life had been wiped from her memory.

No wonder she had been hidden from him. There had been no way that a cocky 17 year old year could have raised a seriously injured 7 year old on his own. She had been taken in by Peggy Carter who was a friend of his father's from the Second World War and raised as her niece. When she reached the age of 18, she became a full-fledged S.H.E.I.L.D. agent, who racked up more assassinations than anyone else. She seemed to be a skilled fighter – both with various weapons and in hand to hand combat – as well as a skillful spy. Tony even bet that she could give the Black Widow a run for her money.

But that left him wondering, why had she left S.H.E.I.L.D.?

* * *

"Daddy, why aren't you and mommy married like Jenny's mommy and daddy?" Audrey asked as Clint picked her up from daycare that afternoon. He and Emma had decided to divide and conquer that afternoon so that they could make it to city hall on time. She still needed to pick up her and Audrey's simple dresses, while Clint already knew exactly where he was going to get his nice shirt, slacks and a tie from. He had wanted to spend some time with his daughter, so he volunteered to pick Audrey up that afternoon from day care.

"It's a long story. But that doesn't mean I don't love mommy just as much as Jenny's parents love each other," he said picking her up and carrying her in his arms so that it was easier to talk in the busy NYC afternoon. "Besides we're getting married this afternoon. We just wanted to make sure you were old enough to be there with us. That's why we waited."

Audrey smiled and hugged her father's neck tightly as they made their way towards city hall, where they were going to meet Emma in just a few minutes.

* * *

Emma smiled as she adjusted the bag on her shoulder as she studied the titanium band that she had just picked up from the jewelers. It was perfect. A ring that was very hard to destroy. Perfect for Clint. God only knew what messes he would be getting into. It wouldn't be much longer until they would finally be married. She had found the cutest pink and white dress from Audrey and a sleeveless purple dress with a black sweater over the dress that she was going to wear. She knew how much Clint loved purple on her.

Up a head on the busy sidewalk there was some sort of commotion going on between two guys and a young woman. Almost immediately, her S.H.E.I.L.D. training kicked in. The entire situation looked like the young woman was being threatened by both of the guys.

As Emma slowly made her way past the scene, a flash of a silver blade held tightly next to the pants leg of one of the guys caught her eye along with the tears of the young woman. It was now or never. Within a split second, both of the guys were on the ground – not knowing what had hit them. Emma, still in a crouching position, told the young woman to run, which she did. But before Emma could get back onto her feet and escape herself, the guy who had the knife impaled it deeply into her stomach and pulled it back out.

"That's what you get, you interfering bitch!" he spat at her, before he and his friend managed to get up and get away. Unfortunately for them they didn't get very far.

"That's no way to treat a lady," Ironman said, stopping the two punks in their tracks.

By that time the police had arrived and arrested them, while Emma had taken a turn for the worse. Doubled over in pain, she had fallen to her knees as she pressed her hands to her stomach trying to hold in the gushing blood. But it was coming too fast and she was getting light headed.

"Up we go," a voice said as a pair of cold arms picked her up and went soaring into the sky as the world went dark.

* * *

Clint paced back and forth glancing down at his watch every so often. This wasn't like Emma. She was never late. Audrey had found entertainment playing with her father's cell phone for the time being. "Daddy, your phone is ringing," she said holding it out to him.

He glanced at the number – Nick Fury.

"Barton, you need to get back here immediately."

"But…"

"It's Agent Carter. She's been wounded."


	6. Chapter 6

_**AN and Disclaimer: **I don't own 'em. I'm just borrowing them for a bit. Anyways, here you go! Enjoy and please leave me some loving…..story alerts are good and all, but it only takes a brief second to leave me some genuine loveeeeeeeee….please…..I give up sleep to write these chapters for you…_

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**Chapter 6:**

Tony sat transfixed on the recovery bed in front of him. Lying motionless, hooked up to numerous tubes and machines lay Emma Carter – no, that wasn't her name. Her real name was Emma Stark, his little sister, who he had taken for dead all these years. And now she was laying in a S.H.E.I.L.D. recovery bed fighting for her life. The S.H.E.I.L.D. medics reassured him that she should recover and be fine in a few days, but he knew that she had lost a lot of blood from the moment that he had snatched her as she fell after she had been stabbed to the moment when he had arrived on the helicarrier. Thank goodness that it had been close to the NYC.

The door to the infirmary room slid open as Fury entered. "Any change yet?"

"Hun," Tony asked, coming out of his thoughts about his sister and her recovery. "Oh no not yet. I bet it won't be for a few more hours. Something about having to do emergency surgery to stop internal bleeding?"

"Correct," Fury said. "But I need you to come with me for a while, Stark. This situation is a bit delicate."

"A bit delicate?" he asked confused.

Fury nodded. "Come with me and I'll explain."

Tony followed Fury to the bridge and sat down at the conference table where a video feed of the recovery room was pulled up. "Now enlighten me on how my sister's situation is a bit delicate. I really would like to know. You've already managed to keep her a secret from me for over 20 years, what else could there be?"

Fury leaned on the table next to Stark and set down a ring. It was the ring that Emma had been grasping on to when Tony had left her in the care of the S.H.E.I.L.D. medics. He really had not paid much attention to it.

"So what?" Tony said, picking up the ring. "It is a ring."

"Let me tell you a story. About 9 years ago, I had these two new recruits with tremendous talents come into S.H.E.I.L.D. Sure enough, I was right about them both. They both rose up in the ranks and I began to trust them both with top assignments, both together and alone. One was your sister and the other was Agent Barton. Somewhere along the way a bond was forged between them, much like the one you and Ms. Potts share and well theirs got the better of them. Five years ago, Agent Carter left S.H.E.I.L.D. fulltime to raise their daughter. This ring was for Agent Barton."

"You mean to tell me that Legolas was going to get married to my sister without my blessing?"

"Agent Carter still has no idea that you are her brother. Nor does anyone else. I doubt that this is the best time to bring it up anyways. Let her recover, then find the right time."

Tony wanted to argue, but that was when Barton appeared on the bridge. He looked like hell, as far as Tony could tell. He was dressed in the typical S.H.E.I.L.D. attire, but it looked like it had been thrown on in a hurry.

"Sir," Barton said nodding towards Fury. He then turned to Tony. "Mr. Stark."

"If you will excuse me, Stark," Fury said, leaving with Barton.

Tony sat by and watched them walk off the bridge and back towards the infirmary room. After a few seconds he turned back and watched the video feed from the room. Perhaps Fury was pulling one over on him about his sister being involved with Agent Barton. This guy was a stone-cold assassin. But then again, his sister's file did say that she had more assassinations then any other S.H.E.I.L.D. agent.

* * *

"She looks worse than she really is. She lost a lot of blood, the knife nicked her pancreas and caused internal bleeding which was taken care of." Fury said as they stood outside the infirmary door.

Clint glanced in at Emma's motionless figure hooked up to the various monitors and tubes. Her heartbeat was steady and so was her breathing. That was all that he could ask for at the moment.

"Who got her here sir?"

"Stark did. He said he was testing a new suit and came upon the scene."

"But how's he know to bring her here?"

"She still has her S.H.E.I.L.D. ID tags and the Ironman suit picked up the signature." Fury said with a straight face. He knew it was a lie, but he was not going to be the one who told the relationship between Tony and Emma to the world. That was to be left to the siblings. But at least Clint bought it.

Clint sighed in relief and moved to allow the door to slide open. "Oh Barton, I believe that Emma was going to give you this today." Fury said, holding out the ring to him. "I'm sorry that your plans didn't go as you wanted."

He took the ring from his commanding officer and looked at it for a second then back at Fury. "Me too, sir," he said as he entered the room and the door slid closed behind him.

Fury watched as Agent Barton moved a chair directly next to Emma's beside and ever so gently he picked up the hand closest to him and gingerly held it in his own and began to whisper something to her as he used his other hand to brush the loose hair strands from her face.

After a few seconds he headed back to the bridge.

* * *

Fury hadn't been lying about Barton and Emma. Not wanting to intrude any longer then he already had, Tony clicked the live feed off. He sat there for a few minutes in thought. Maybe it was about damn time he changed a few things in his life as well.

* * *

A grasping of his hand brought Clint out of his semi-sleep. He had no idea how long he had fallen asleep for, but he rarely had a good night's sleep unless his was in bed with Emma. Other than that his body was on full alert for anything.

"C…l…int…." Emma hoarsely whispered. She was finally coming around from the sedation drugs that had put her on for the surgery. "Wh…at ha…pp..ened?"

"You were stabbed. Some internal bleeding. Didn't open up any old wounds. That's all," he whispered as he leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead as he helped her sit up in the bed. He reached for a cup and a bottle of pain pills next to the bed next. The medic had told him to make sure that she got two of these as soon as she had come around from the sedation drugs. He handed her the cup of water and pills. She took a sip of water and starred at the pills for a second.

"I'm sorry for messing everything up," she whispered.

"It's ok," he answered, kissing her lips softly. "We'll get married soon enough. Besides, I do like the ring you got me."

He held up his hand and showed her where he had placed the ring on his hand – not his ring finger on his left hand but on his right, just the opposite until they were married. "Now take these pills and get some more rest so that we can go home."

Emma nodded and took the pills. As she settled back against the bed again, Clint kissed her one last time. "I love you Emma," he whispered. "I'll stay right here all night."

"I love you too," she whispered back as she yawned.

As Clint pulled away to sit back down, Emma said one last thing. "I wanna come back to S.H.E.I.L.D…."

* * *

Natasha stood off to the side of the infirmary window – each moment she was getting weaker and weaker. The man she was in love with loved someone else. How could she not see this? She had always thought that she and Clint had a special bond between them.

After she had seen him in the park with the little girl and the young woman, she had been hurt but she wasn't going to allow herself to be counted out yet. But now everything was different. Natasha knew exactly who she was going up against for Clint Barton's heart.

* * *

_AN #2: Don't forget to leave me some loveeeeeee. And don't get me wrong, I do like Natasha, but I wanted to introduce a new member to the team as well. ;) Happy Reading!_


	7. Chapter 7

_AN and Disclaimer: I don't own them - just borrowing them for a bit. Anyways, I've pretty much gotten this story planned out. So enjoy and be prepared for a wild and bumpy ride! Feed back is always welcomed!_

* * *

**Chapter 7:**

"She wants to do what?" Fury asked a little confused. He had come to check on Emma's recovery and found that Clint was still wide-awake watching over her. They had moved into the hallway and were now talking softly about Emma's last request before she had fallen back into a state of unconsciousness.

"She mentioned coming back to S.H.E.I.L.D., sir. I'm not sure if it was the drugs talking or if she really meant it. I'm going to talk to her about it when she wakes up again." Clint said, leaning up against the bulkhead. A lack of sleep was catching up with him. He had too much on his mind at the moment. What did Emma mean when she had said that she wanted to come back to S.H.E.I.L.D.? What would they do with Audrey? Would Fury even allow Emma to return? How would Natasha react to possibly loosing a partner? How would the other Avengers react? Would he even stay an Avenger?

"You know as well as I do, Barton, that she never really left S.H.E.I.L.D. If she wants to come back to active duty that is something that the two of you have to work out. Believe me, I would love to have her in my pocket, especially after loosing Coulson."

"Yes, sir."

Inside the infirmary room, Emma began to stir. Fury stepped back and allowed Barton to reenter the room. Fury could tell that he was having internal conflicts about having Emma rejoin S.H.E.I.L.D. Hell, what man wouldn't have doubts about putting someone they love in the line of danger each and every day? He wasn't going to push the point any further. They could work it out for themselves.

* * *

After being released from the infirmary, Emma had put on bed rest at home under the direct supervision of Clint. The medic in charge had remembered her from her days with S.H.E.I.L.D. and the many times that he had to basically put her back together again. Clint promised to make sure that she took it easy.

Before they left the helicarrier, Clint wanted to have that talk with Emma to make sure that he hadn't misheard her the night before.

"You really want to come back on active duty?" he asked as he found an empty room off the main corridor.

"Yeah," she said as she slowly sat down in a chair and looked down at the floor. "I miss you Clint. I miss seeing you all the time. I miss the missions. The adventure. I hate worrying that the next phone call I get is going to be from Fury that I have to come pick up your body. I would rather be there watching your back. Then I would only have myself to blame and no one else."

Tears slowly rolled down Emma's cheeks as she quickly tried to wipe them away so that Clint didn't see them before he knelt by her side. But being engaged to a man with the alias of Hawkeye did have its disadvantages.

"Hey, this isn't like you," he whispered. "You are the agent who took out the top five most wanted dictators in the world in a two year time period?"

"I had help."

"True, but you did all the hard work. I just did the shooting for the distractions. You did the actual killings."

A small smile formed across Emma's face. "Then there was Brunei when the role was reversed. That was priceless."

Clint cringed at the memory. He was never cut out to be an undercover spy. Undercover ops was never his thing. Sniper shooting was. "Now that smile is what I want to see. And the stone cold stare of your assassin's glare. I always find that a turn on."

Emma rolled her eyes at him before speaking again. "But if I do come back, what are we going to do with Audrey?"

"You know that Mom has a pretty big place in Iowa. It's safe. No alien invasions happening there that I know of."

She sighed. Iowa was so far away from their home. But it was safe. Besides, she grew up with only her aunt and turned out fine. And if something were to happen to both her and Clint, then at least Audrey would be taken care of by family.

"I'm in."

* * *

"Two weeks," Fury said. "Get healed up. Take care of everything that needs to be taken care of then report to your new assignment. Both of you."

"New assignment?" Clint asked.

"Yes Agent Barton. Both of you." Fury reiterated as he took a datapad from Agent Hill, who was standing next to him and handed it to Emma. "Get to know your new teammates, Agent Carter. You've got some catching up to do. Barton make sure to help her if she needs it."

"Teammates?" she asked confused.

"Yes teammates," he repeated. "You're the newest member of the Avengers."


	8. Chapter 8

_AN and Disclaimer: I don't own 'em – I'm just borrowing them for a bit. See the bottom for the Author's Note._

* * *

**Chapter 8:**

Tony stared at the computer readouts in front of him as he sat in the semi-reconstructed living room of his apartment in Stark Tower. JARVIS had just finished analyzing a strand of hair that he had managed to get from Emma Carter's head during the flight to the S.H.E.I.L.D. helicarrier.

Damn near perfect DNA match.

It wasn't like he didn't trust what Fury was telling him, but the man was known for keeping secrets about his own secrets. Tony just had to be sure that he was being told the truth about his sister actually being alive.

"What should I do with the test results, sir?" JARVIS asked.

"Destroy them," he said standing up and moving towards the bar. He poured himself a drink and finished it off in one gulp. This entire family situation was getting to him. He needed a release. He needed to talk to someone about it.

Where was Pepper Potts when he needed her the most?

The answer was easy. She was on the other side of the country in California taking care of some west coast business so that she could move most of the operations permanently to New York since it seemed that was where they were going to be for the most part for now on since the Avengers were going to be based in Stark Tower.

At least she would be back in New York the next night. And he couldn't wait for the surprise that he had to her.

* * *

"_Mommy! Look! Isn't it cute?"_

_ A dark haired woman turned around, smiled at her and nodded. "Yes, Emma. You did a good job on braiding your doll's hair…"_

_ But everything was suddenly thrust forward and all that could be heard were her mother and father's screams and cries that everyone was safe. Then all was silent…._

_ "Emma? Emma?"_

* * *

"Emma? Emma?"

"Hun what? Oh sorry," Emma quickly said as she shook away the memory as Clint drove them towards home. Clint was glancing at her worriedly. They had been in the middle of a conversation when she zoned out.

They had just driven past a minor car accident and Emma had the memory come to her randomly. There were very few things about her childhood that she could remember - most of it had been told to her by her Aunt Peggy. Clint didn't even know that she had amnesia from when she was a child; all he knew was that she had been in the car accident that killed her parents. "I think some of the pain pills are still in my system."

"We'll be home in a few minutes. Then you can rest some more."

She nodded and smiled slightly. She knew that she was going to have to tell Clint about her childhood sooner or later, especially if she had another memory occurrence like the one she just had.

* * *

_AN: I hope everyone enjoyed this short chapter. I didn't want to leave you hanging all night long! Anyways, I wanted to clear up a misconception about Emma and Natasha – yes they will be rivals at first, but it won't last for long. I promise you that most everything will work out in the end. Ok? Good deal. _


	9. Chapter 9

_AN and Disclaimer: I don't own 'em – I'm just borrowing them. Thank you to all those who have reviewed, added me as an alert or made this story a favorite of theirs. Please keep the love coming!_

* * *

**Chapter Nine:**

"You may now kiss the bride."

Without hesitation, Clint pulled Emma close and kissed her deeply on the lips. Finally they were married. Finally he knew that she was defiantly his – forever.

A tug at the bottom of his shirt broke the kiss. He and Emma both looked down at Audrey. "Can we go now?" she asked, whining a bit. They both smiled at their daughter. She had been an absolute angel the entire afternoon while they wait in the massive line to get in front of the Justice of the Peace to get married.

"Yes we can go now," Emma said as Clint scooped up Audrey and the newly minted Barton family happily left city hall.

Now it was time to celebrate. Emma was healing just fine after a few days of bed rest. They were finally married. And to top it all off, in Clint's mind, he and Emma would be working together again.

The only downfall would come in a few days when they told Audrey about the new living arrangements. But they would worry about that later. Now was a time to celebrate.

* * *

"Lack of sleep does you no good," Pepper said walking into Tony's garage/lab area of Stark Tower. It was 3 in the morning. When she had woken up in a cold and lonely bed, Pepper knew exactly were to find Tony.

"I know," he said, making one last adjustment to his newest Iron Man suit, the Mark VIII, which could be used in space. Could come in handy if the Chitauri ever decided to attack the Earth again.

Whenever he was short with her like that, Pepper always knew that something was on Tony's mind. Typically it was something big. "What's wrong?" she asked as she moved behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Usually whenever I get back from California, you don't want to leave the bedroom."

"It's not you Pepper."

"Is it Fury?"

"You could say that."

"What'd he do this time?" she asked, as she moved a chair next to Tony's and sat down. She knew that this could take a while.

"Did you know I had a little sister?" he asked without looking at her.

"No."

"Yeah, I did. She died in the car accident with my parents. She was seven. I always wondered how she might have turned out if she had survived. She was just as smart and creative as I was, but my father felt that the Stark women should be seen and never heard. So her genius was kept hush, hush."

Tony placed his head in his hands and rested them against the desk as he tried to fight off the wave of emotions that had been building up inside of him for the past few days. Here was his chance for a release and he was fighting it.

"Whatever it is Tony, please tell me," Pepper said moving closer to him and placing her hands against his.

"She's alive Pepper. She was hidden from me," he mumbled without looking at her.

"Who? Your sister?"

Tony took a deep breath then looked up at the woman who had stood by him through everything. He sighed before going on. "Yeah. But there's a catch. She doesn't remember me."

"Oh Tony," Pepper said, pulling him close and cradling him in her arms. That was when Tony Stark lost it and for the first time in their entire professional and personal relationship, he cried. He cried for all the mistakes in his life. He cried for how his little sister had been treated by their alcoholic father at times for being smart. And he cried for not telling Pepper Potts that he loved her sooner then her had. He clung to Pepper and sobbed like a child.

"Is she happy though?" Pepper finally asked after a few minutes.

"I think so. But she works for S.H.E.I.L.D., so I dunno if she would really be happy or not."

"How'd you find all this out?"

Tony retold her the entire ordeal about downloading the encrypted files from the helicarrier then the discussion with Fury at her grave site. He even told her that he saved her life and managed to run a DNA test on her hair, just to be on the safe side.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Actually do what Fury suggested. Wait for the right time. But I honestly don't know how much longer I will be able to wait. I've been mourning her for almost 25 years."

"What does she look like?"

Without saying anything, JARVIS pulled up all the images that Tony had been given of his sister. "Her name is Emma."

"She looks just like your mother."

"Yes she does."

After a few more minutes, Tony wearily got to his feet and pulled Pepper up with him. Silently, the couple walked out of the garage/lab and headed up to bed.

* * *

Clint watched with a smile on his face as Audrey sat in between him and Emma on the couch and read to them before her bedtime. It was the little things that he missed during his time away from his girls. He couldn't believe how much Audrey had grown in between the times that he actually got to be at home for a little while. Skyping with them was nothing compared to actually being at home. When he was at home, he could actually unwind and relax.

"I don't want to go live with grandma!" Audrey said as she burst into tears as soon as she was done reading the story. "I wanna stay here!"

The little girl buried her face in her father's chest and wailed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. It had been a few days since Emma had decided to return to S.H.E.I.L.D. and also since they had gotten married. They both knew that they were going to have to tell Audrey sooner or later about her having to go live with grandma. They had explained to her that they wanted her to be safe and that mommy was going to go back to work with daddy.

"So does that mean I won't see you everyday?" Audrey had asked earlier that day. She had been so used to seeing her mother everyday.

"Yes," Emma had answered. "You won't see me every day. But I will make sure that you see both daddy and me more often then we see him now."

Even that conversation still didn't matter. Audrey had kept on crying for most of the day. And now when she should be getting ready for bed, she was working herself up again. Clint held her in his arms, while Emma rubbed her back to try to get her to calm down. Finally after a few minutes, Audrey had cried herself to sleep. Clint got up and carried her to bed, returning a few minutes later.

"She's still asleep," he said, sitting back down next to Emma. She curled up against him on the couch as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Are we bad parents for doing this to our four year old?" Emma asked sighing.

"Hell if I know. I'm pretty sure that I gave my parents a lot of trouble growing up. I think they would have loved to ship me off to my grandparents."

"I don't remember much of mine."

"You what?"

"I don't remember anything before the car accident. Everything that I know about my parents, I was told by my Aunt Peggy. And even then, tis really not much."

"Why are you just now telling me this?" Clint said sounding a bit hurt. He pulled his arm from around her and stood up. He walked towards the window and looked out into the busy New York City night.

"Why does it matter?" Emma asked, standing up and moving behind him. "Maybe my parents were awful and treated me horribly. The only person who really knows is dead and can't answer them for me! What if I'm some sort of freak that S.H.E.I.L.D. is covering up! Aunt Peggy worked for the S.S.R. before it became S.H.E.I.L.D. so maybe they just pawned me off on her! I told you all of this when we were first partnered up!""

"Hey, hey, calm down baby." Clint said turning around. He walked up to her, pulled her into his arms and began to rub her arms to calm her down like she had done with Audrey. "I'm sure that it was a clean cut case of next of kin taking over. Where are all these feelings coming from?"

Emma sighed. "I've been having memories or something like that come back in bits and pieces lately. Mainly it's the car accident I'm seeing. Or that's at least what I think it is."

"How long has this been going on?"

"A few months."

"Why haven't you told me before now?"

"Because I didn't want you to worry! I knew that you were out doing something big for S.H.E.I.L.D. and you needed to focus on that. Besides it wasn't like it was happening every night."

"Dammit Emma! I don't care if it is Armageddon. If there is something wrong, then by God, let me know!"

Emma looked up at Clint and saw his face full of frustration. "Loki's influence still bothering you isn't it?" she asked worriedly as she placed her hands against his chest.

"A bit. Everything was so backwards. Those that I loved were the ones I wanted to injure the most. The ones I swore to protect the world against were the ones that I wanted to help the most. I actually plotted in my head how to kill you and Audrey if I had gotten the chance."

Clint buried his face into the crook of Emma's neck and sobbed. She and Clint both had baggage that they were finally airing. They stood there in silence for a few more minutes as they both took in what they had each told the other. Clint knew that Emma was a spy to the core and that there were things that she kept from those she loved and Emma figured that there were going to be after effects from whatever this Loki guy had done to Clint. She just didn't know how drastic it was. Perhaps it was a good thing that Fury had made Clint take time off to get his head on straight.

"I don't even deserve to be an Avenger after all I did," he said after a few minutes.

"Don't say that. I saw the news footage. You were out there with the rest of the team, killing those ugly things. You are a hero in so many people's eyes, especially your daughter's and in mine."

Clint leaned down and kissed his wife deeply on the lips. He would be lost without Emma. He had been before he had been teamed up with her at S.H.E.I.L.D. She was the reason for so many things that he had done in his life – including staying with S.H.E.I.L.D. after she had left. Now he decided that he'd rather make good use of the time at home they had left. He swept Emma up in his arms and carried her off to bed.

* * *

"What is my assignment this time?"

He was handed a file by a shadowy figure that sat behind a desk. Inside were two photographs- one of a slender, red head and the other was of another slender female with dark brown hair. "Both work for S.H.E.I.L.D. and both are deadly assassins," the figure said. "Do not kill them but bring them to me."

"Nothing that I can't handle."

* * *

"Daddy."

Clint wearily rubbed the sleep from his eyes as they adjusted to his surroundings. Light from the bedroom window poured into the darken room. Standing in front of him was Audrey holding out Emma's cell phone.

"What is it sweetie?"

"Grandma wants to talk to you."

"What?" he asked confused a little as he took Emma's cell phone and put it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Now listen here, Clinton Francis Barton, you will not make that little girl leave New York if she doesn't want to. I will just move there then. I can take over running Emma's bookshop since she is going back to work as well. Then it makes it easier on everybody."

"But mom…"

"But nothing young man. I will not have my only grandchild unhappy! I will be arriving tomorrow night."

"Fine mom, you can move here."

"I will see you tomorrow. Bye."

Clint said bye and hung up the phone before turning to look at his daughter who stood by the bedside grinning from ear to ear. By that time, Emma was waking up. "What's going on?" she mumbled lay her head on Clint's shoulder and looked at Audrey as well.

"Mom's moving here instead of Audrey going to Iowa. She said she's going to run the bookshop for you."

"Who gave her that idea?"

Clint jerked his head towards Audrey, who was still grinning. "Your daughter called her this morning."

"She's half yours too."

* * *

The last few days of vacation were busy as could be. Between having to get ready for grandma Barton to arrive and trying to keep Audrey calm enough so that she wouldn't start crying again, Emma was drained just about every night. Clint helped out as much as he could, but most of the time he just felt that he was in her way. Typically he retreated to the bookshop for a few hours just to make sure that it was all still running fine without Emma. He was also getting everyone there ready for the arrival of his mother.

After Clint's mom arrived, Emma finally could take a breather. She and Clint would spend most of their final days of vacation with Audrey just doing things as a family – going to the zoo, the park or even just walking around.

But at night, Clint would have Emma studying the data files that Fury had given her on the Avengers, while Audrey would be taken care of by her grandma. The good thing about the files was that Emma already knew the background on most of them; she just needed a refresher course on them.

"What if they don't accept me into the group?" she asked setting down the datapad.

"Obviously you've never seen all of us in a room before. Trust me you will fit right in. I know that if Fury put you on this team, then the others will follow suit."

"Even Natasha?"

"If not, I will deal with her."

"I hope you're right."

"I know I am," he said kissing her lips softly.

* * *

_AN #2: I wrote this chapter extra long because I might not have much of a chance to up date this week because it is the last week of school and being a teacher, I have a TON of paperwork to do! So enjoy! I also know that Clint's parents were killed in a car accident in the comics, but since this isn't true canon, I made it so that one of his parents was still alive.  
_


	10. Chapter 10

_AN and Disclaimer:  I don't own 'em…..I'm just borrowing them for a bit._

_Anyways, here ya'll go! It's not much, but for now it shall do! I have one more day of work then I am free for summer break! Ahhh the joys of being a school teacher…..so enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter Ten:

Emma took a deep breath before she and Clint entered S.H.E.I.L.D. headquarters in lower Manhattan. It had already been a stressful morning having to say goodbye to a clingy Audrey. The closer they had gotten to the day that they had to both return to work, the clinger that Audrey had gotten. Emma couldn't blame her though. Audrey knew exactly what her father did and what her mother was going back to do. And they both made sure that Audrey would be able to get in touch with them if she needed to.

"Nervous?" Clint whispered as they walked through the crowded hallways.

"A bit. It's just been so long," she said glancing around at all the construction that was going on around them on the new headquarters.

"Look on the bright side. At least we're not having to stay here."

"That is always a plus," she said as they entered the makeshift communications hub where they found Nick Fury standing in the center of all the hustle and bustle of activity. As usual, he was issuing orders to anyone who was listening and even some to those who were not. It took him a few seconds to notice that they had reported for duty.

"Barton! Carter! With me!" he barked, turning on his heel and leaving his post at the top of the communications center. Emma and Clint quickly fell into step behind their commanding officer as he led them back outside to an awaiting black SUV. They both followed Fury's lead as he got into the SUV.

"Romanov is already waiting for you both at your new location as well as the others." Fury said as he drove through the streets of Manhattan.

"About that," Clint began.

"Don't worry, she's been reassigned partners. She is now helping Cap't get more acquainted with the modern era. Figured that a woman was much better at that then a man. Stark might just scare him."

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, where exactly are we going?" Emma asked, from the back seat. She had noticed that the busy streets of lower Manhattan had begun to turn into the area that had been decimated by the recent attacks on the city.

"Stark Tower. The new operations base of the Avengers."

* * *

The five remaining members of the Avengers sat on the couch in the living room of the penthouse of Stark Tower and stared at each other. It had been a few weeks since the events that brought them together as a "ticking time bomb" of a team.

"Why aren't they talking?" Emma whispered to Fury as they stood off in a corner away from the group.

"They really don't get along sometimes." Fury whispered back.

"Besides turning my baby of a tower into the super secret boy band slash groupie hangout, what's up with the new agent?" Stark finally asked.

Emma raised an eyebrow at being referred to as a "groupie" while Natasha glared daggers at Stark.

"This is Agent Carter. She's the newest addition to your team. Too much testosterone in the opinion of the council."

"What's your secret then?" Stark asked, continuing to dish out the questions. He already knew that Agent Carter didn't have any special powers that had been reported. He just wanted to know her answers.

Emma smiled and approached where Stark was sitting. "Stand up please."

"Is it going to hurt?" he asked as he did so.

In a split second, she had pressed her fingers into several of his joints and suddenly he felt his knees give way and he collapsed in a heap on the floor in the middle of the room. "Did it hurt?" she asked kneeling down.

"Nope, not at all," he said as he tried to pick himself up off the floor.

"Pressure points. Cool trick." Banner said.

"Now back to business," Fury said, as he handed everyone a data pad. "We've detected another reading similar to the Tesseract. It's faint, but it's steady."

"Where is it coming from?" Natasha asked.

"We believe the Bronx right now. But it's been all over the world in the past few days. And we believe that Advanced Idea Mechanics has something to do with it."

"A.I.M.?" Emma asked in confusion. "I thought that they were in the arms business, not the energy business."

"They are a terrorist organization that needs to be stopped. Plain and simple." Fury responded.

"So what do you want us to do about it?" Stark asked as he finally managed to get himself back into a chair. "Storm the castle and steal the prize?"

"Surveillance and recon for now. Use some of your business contacts to try to get in with some of their front organizations, Stark. Carter, Romanov, I trust that you two know how to use your assets to get in and get information?"

Emma and Natasha nodded.

"Banner, try and see if you can isolate and figure out if that gamma signature is the same or not. Any abnormality will be of help. Captain, you and Barton assist where needed. I know that this isn't a glorified mission, but this team is the most capable of bringing down A.I.M. and figuring out whatever the hell this gamma signature is."

Fury turned on his heel and left after that. For a few more minutes, everyone sat in silence. "So what now?" Banner asked.

"Living arrangements are a must to go over, along with all that I've put into this tower for the Avengers or will eventually add during the remodel." Stark said as he stood up, still a bit wobbly. "Agent Carter, you and Hawkeye will be 3 floors down. Captain, you and Natasha will be 2 floors down. Then Dr. Banner will be one floor down. On the fourth floor down is a gym/training area and the main area where we would meet and discuss our plans of attack - sorta like a common living area. But everyone has their own living quarters."

"I suggest we all get settled and acquainted with the new living arrangements before we plan anything against A.I.M.," Steve suggested.

Everyone agreed and for the time being went their separate ways.


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, I'm just borrowing them for a bit. See the ending for the author's note._

* * *

Chapter 11:

"What's her name?"

Clint looked at Steve in confusion as the two of them stood off to the side as Emma and Natasha sparred each other in the training facility that Tony Stark had built for the Avengers, with some input from Fury.

"You know, you're Hawkeye, Natasha's the Black Widow, I'm Captain America."

"Oh. Her code name was Agent 13, but most of the time everyone called her Em or 13."

The two guys continued to watch as Emma began to get knocked around a bit, but still got in a few good hits against Natasha. "So if she's supposed to be so good, then where was she during the invasion a few weeks ago?" Steve asked as Natasha got in a final blow against Emma, sending her flying into the training mats before helping her up. "I mean I met her a few weeks ago, but she was running a bookshop in Manhattan. I had no idea she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

"That's her story to tell. Not mine." Clint said as he picked up his bow and quiver of arrows and headed towards Emma and Natasha. Steve wondered what he meant by that.

* * *

"I think we should tell them. It might make things easier in the long run." Emma said as she towel dried her hair after she and Clint had finished working out later that afternoon. After the sparring session with Natasha, Emma worked on agility drills by having Clint shoot arrows at her from different locations and directions while she had to either deflect them or dodge them.

"But 'we' barely know most of them. The only one who would get pissed off the most is Natasha!"

"And have you ever thought about why she might get pissed off? Besides the fact that the person who she probably trusted most in this world kept the fact that he had a family secret from her."

"I never kept it a secret. I just never told her."

Emma glared in the mirror at her husband who was standing behind her.

"Trust me it was for your own safety. There are some scoundrels from my past who would love to do me in," he said moving into the bedroom and sitting down on the bed.

"Ah yes, the criminal carney of a brother of yours. Topshot?"

"Trickshot."

"Who, I might remind you, is currently locked up on the Raft. And who was put there by you and I several years ago." Emma said putting her hair up in a messy bun before walking towards Clint in the bedroom, who was now sprawled out on the bed in their joint quarters – well it hadn't been joint to begin with. They had made it that way. She climbed onto the bed and moved so that she was sitting on top of her husband's stomach and her legs pinned him to the bed.

"For me?" she asked smiling down at him.

"Fine. But let me talk to Natasha first."

"I can live with that," she said as she lay down against his chest and sighed. Clint wrapped his arms around her and kissed her top of her head. He would never admit this to anyone, but he was happy that Emma had returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. because lately things between him and Natasha were getting a bit weird. He couldn't explain it, nor did he try to. There was very little that he actually understood about women and their emotions. He was just thrilled that he had actually found one that managed to put up with him for so long.

In his arms, Emma began to giggle a little. "What?" he asked.

"Your stomach is growling," she said. "It's funny to listen to. Audrey does this to me sometimes. I don't think I've ever done this to anyone before."

"Well then. Let's go see who else is raiding the kitchen!"

* * *

"Now how does this work again?" Steve asked as Tony showed him how to interact with JARVIS' mainframe in the kitchen area of the common area as Emma and Clint exited the elevator. Banner was enjoying watching Tony trying to teach the man out of time how to use a computer. Emma and Clint sat down at the kitchen counter next to Banner and watched.

"You just press this button and tell JARVIS what you want."

"But what's the point when I can make it for myself? All I wanted was a sandwich."

Tony sighed and rubbed his temples. "You know technology isn't for everyone. Besides, what's the point of having a computer cook for you when there are people who are capable of doing it just as well or even better." Emma said.

"JARVIS is not simply a computer." Tony snapped at her.

"And I am not simply a 'groupie'," she snapped back.

"I bet that you couldn't figure out how to run JARVIS without a lesson."

Emma stood up and moved to the other side of the counter. She pushed Steve to the side and took his spot next to Tony. She glanced at the interface screen that was in the kitchen counter for a brief second. "Ohhh let's see here, this button controls the lights," she said as she pushed the button and the lights went off. "Then this one controls the television. Oh then this one controls the window coverings. Then this one controls the temperature."

Each time she pressed a button, it actually did what she said it did. "Now let's see, if you just give me a second," she said as she brought up a keyboard and typed in series of code that Tony had never seen before. Before he could do anything, JARVIS spoke up. "Good evening, Agent Carter. I am glad that you have proven your point to Mr. Stark that you are not a 'groupie'."

"She's good," Banner said.

"Fine you win. You're good with computers. So you've got brains and brawn." Tony said.

"Good. Now since I won, you get to make the sandwiches for dinner, without JARVIS' help." Emma said. "JARVIS, no helping."

"Yes, Agent Carter." JARVIS responded.

"That sounds good to me," Steve said as he moved towards the living room area, where Clint, Banner and Emma were moving to sit down and put on a movie or something.

Speechless, Tony gave in and made the stupid sandwiches.

* * *

_AN: I know that this was an odd place to end the chapter, but I am really tired. It was the last day of school and I had to move all my stuff for the summer out of my classroom. Then the A/C is out at my house, so I'm living with BIG fans for the next few days. I promise that there will be another update tomorrow! I promise that we are getting to the good stuff….like the discussion between Clint and Natasha; Emma finding out about her and Tony being related and a lot of other good stuff….like the return of THOR!_


	12. Chapter 12

_AN and Disclaimer: I don't own them! So please don't sure me….I gotta pay back student loans soon!_

_Anywho, I know that I promised a chapter yesterday, but real life got in the way…..so its better late then never. So enjoy and please leave me some feedback!_

* * *

Chapter 12:

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. Natasha eventually joined the rest of the group in common area for dinner and movies the rest of the first night as an official team. The only downfall, that Clint saw the entire night, was that Emma wasn't curled up right next to him like she always was whenever they watched a movie together. Sure she was still sitting next to him on the couch, but it was almost like they were being held apart by an invisible barrier. He knew exactly why she was doing it – it was because of her earlier request: to tell the others that they were married. He would make it through the movie, and then he would talk to Natasha.

When _Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure _was over - it had been Banner's choice; he had claimed never too have seen it – Emma bid everyone a good night and turned in for the night. She was both tired and sore from her workout from earlier that day. Steve had decided to go read a book in his room while Banner and Tony headed up to their labs to do work. That left just Clint and Natasha sitting in the common room.

Natasha went to get up to leave, but Clint grabbed her arm for her to stop. "Wait Nat, I need to talk to you for minute," he said pulling her back down. He took a deep breath.

"I know about you and Emma." Natasha said beating him to the punch. "I saw the two of you in the park with a little girl a few weeks ago."

"What?" he asked confused.

"I followed you to the city when you left the helicarrier. I was worried about you! I knew you were hiding something from me, I just wasn't sure what. I never knew that it would be that you had a family."

Clint couldn't believe what he was hearing. Natasha had basically stalked him when he had asked her to give him some privacy. "I had told you that I had to clear my head. Wasn't that good enough?" he asked as he stood up in disbelief.

"I did it because I care about you!" she said looking up at him.

He sighed. "I'm sorry that you had to find out that way Nat. I really am."

"She was your partner before I was, right?"

"Yeah," he said nodding.

"Can I ask why did she leave?"

A rare smile formed across Clint's face. "We fell in love. While it made our partnership stronger, but after a particularly bad mission - where we both almost ended up dead - things got a little heated. Hell, I'm not complaining one bit because that little girl your saw us with was born. Emma left S.H.E.I.L.D. to raise our daughter full time, while still serving as a consultant and I stayed in the field."

"But why keep it a secret?"

"You know that my past is just as troubling as yours. I couldn't afford to let anyone know about my new family. Sure Fury knew, that's why he would typically give me time off if I asked for it. But that's about all who knew at S.H.E.I.L.D. Everyone else assumed that she left to take over her aunt's bookshop after she died, which she actually did."

Natasha sat there speechless. What could she do or say? One of the few people in the world that she truly trusted had just spilled his heart out to her – but about another woman. When she had first found out on her own, she was hurt and upset. Yet for some reason, now she was ok with it. Only time would tell just how ok she really was with it.

"Anyways," Clint said after Natasha didn't say anything in response to him. "I just wanted you to know the entire story before any other the others found out. You above all deserved to at least know the entire thing. But I'm going to head to bed now. I'll see you in the morning."

"Thank you for telling me."

He gave her a nod then turned and headed towards the elevator. After Clint left, Natasha sat there for a few more minutes by herself. What the hell was wrong with her emotions? A few weeks ago she was torn up about Clint having kept his personal life a secret from her but now things felt different. This was exactly why love was for children.

* * *

_A little girl sniffled as tears ran down her rosy red cheeks from the previous tears that had been shed. She had fallen down the outside stairs while running after her ball. As a result, she had bumps and scraped up hands and knees. She had been found by the family's trusty butler, who had carried her into the house to patch her up. "No more tears, Ms. Emma. I'll have you patched up in no time," he had said to her. _

"_But it stings,"_

"_Only for a few more minutes," he said as he placed the last bandage on the scraped up knees. "Good as new! Now I seem to remember that I baked some cookies for a happy little girl, not a sad one."_

_Emma smiled and hugged the butler, who was more like a member of the family. "Thank you for taking care of me, Jarvis…"_

* * *

Emma couldn't sleep.

She was physically exhausted but sleep could not come to her. Not matter how hard she tried, not matter how many sheep she counted, she still couldn't get to sleep. Ever since her interaction with the computer system, JARVIS, and hearing its accented voice, her mind had been replaying this new memory over and over again. The first time she had it was after she had returned to the room for the night. When Clint had joined her after his talk with Natasha, she told him about the memory. He didn't seem too concerned about it and told her that he knew that she would figure it all out soon. She knew that he was probably right. Besides, so far this was only they second memory of her childhood to surface.

For part of the night, she actually managed not to think about the memory too much all thanks to Clint. She made a mental note to have him shoot arrows more often at her if he was going to treat her as well as he had.

But all that was hours ago. Next to her, Clint's steady breathing typically could lull her to sleep like a lullaby, yet tonight it wasn't working. Silently, she slipped out of bed and made her way to the living room where there was a small kitchenette. Perhaps a cup of tea would help her relax enough to finally get to sleep.

A few minutes later, with a cup of tea in hand, Emma sat in front of the glass windows and gazed out onto the city that never sleeps. The memory of her childhood butler named Jarvis ran itself through her mind again and again as she sipped her tea.

She was beginning to come up with more questions then she had answers for the longer that she sat there and thought.

"you ok baby?" a sleepy voice asked from behind her. She turned her head to see Clint standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

"I couldn't sleep."

"Couldn't stop thinking is more like it," he said walking towards her. He took the cup of tea from her hand and set it on the table. "I know how that brain of yours works. You think and think and think about something until it drives you crazy or you collapse from exhaustion."

"I do not."

"Whatever. It's too early to argue," he said yawning. Then in one swift move, he picked up Emma out of the chair and began to carry her back to the bedroom. He gently set her back down on the bed, and then crawled in next to her – pulling up the sheet as he did so around them. He pulled his wife into his arms and began to gently rub her back. "It's ok to think, Em. Just don't over think things. You always figure it out anyways. Now try to get some sleep. We've got more training in the morning."

Emma nodded as she lay against her husband's chest; letting his gentle rubbing motions on her back relax her.

Finally, sleep came to her.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN and Disclaimer:**_ I don't own the Avengers - I just use them to satisfy my muse. _

_Here's another chapter for you to enjoy and things are beginning to pick up!_

* * *

**Chapter 13:**

Emma awoke with a smile on her face as she realized that she was held in the protective embrace of her husband. This was the perfect way to wake up everyday. It took them long enough to finally get to this point, but it was well worth the wait.

But her smile was short lived when her cell phone started to ring on the bedside table. She answered it, just as Clint began to wake up.

"Who was that?" he asked groggily as she hung up the phone a moment later.

"Fury," she said quickly getting out of bed and throwing on the first outfit she could find.

"What did he want?"

"I just need to fill out some paperwork. You know the typical bureaucratic bullshit that needs to be taken care of to keep in business."

"Gimme a sec and I'll go with you."

"It's alright," she said stealing a quick kiss. "He's waiting for me downstairs. I'll meet you in the common room in a few minutes. We'll get some breakfast then got workout on my targeting skills. Lord only knows that I need to work on my shooting."

"Ok."

* * *

"Where's Emma?" Banner asked as he, Steve, Clint and Natasha all gathered for breakfast. Tony had already gotten an early morning start on working on one of his new Ironman suits.

"She had to meet with Fury for a few minutes. She won't be long." Clint said as he took added milk to his bowl of cereal. As he went for his first bite, the doors to the elevator opened and out stepped Fury and Emma. But they weren't alone. He dropped his spoon back into the bowl in shock and disbelief.

All the assembled Avengers sat in shock at the sight of the third person that had been in the elevator.

"Umm, JARVIS," Banner said aloud. "Tell Tony he might want to come down here right now."

"Yes sir," the AI said.

* * *

Tony was deep into his work on his newest Ironman suit when JARVIS cut in. "Sir, Dr. Banner requests your presence in the common room. He sounded rather urgent."

"Really now? Let's just go see what has the good doctor all in a tizzy," he said standing up from his desk and taking the stairs down.

It didn't take him long to reach the floor where the common area was. "What's the commotion all about?" he asked coming out of the stairwell. But as soon as he saw Fury and the new person he had a hard time finding his words.

"What the hell is this!" he finally said.

"This is the result of modern medicine and technology working quickly to save a life," Fury said as Emma helped Phil Coulson slowly stand up out of the wheelchair that he had been sitting in.

"But we all thought you died!" Natasha said in disbelief.

"Oh I did. For a few minutes," Coulson said.

"They said you were down," Steve added.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that one is dead." Emma said as she helped Coulson over toward the group.

"Why didn't you tell anyone? Why keep this a secret?" Banner asked.

"Coulson was touch and go for about a week. We had him in isolation and were working to stabilize him. Once S.H.I.E.L.D. medics had done that, he needed time to recover. I honestly thought that Coulson was gone, just like all of you did." Fury added.

"But now I just need some more time to recover then I will be back bothering all of you," he said as he sat down at the table with the group that was still in disbelief. "I just wanted to come by and see everyone before I left for Portland for a few weeks."

"Aww the cellist," Tony said.

Coulson nodded before turning to look at Clint, who hadn't spoken a word. "This isn't your fault Clint," he said reaching out and placing a hand on Clint's shoulder. "Now get over your little pity party or I will have Emma hang you off the side of this building with no means of escape. You and I both know that she can and will do that."

Behind him, Emma smiled evilly. She had done something similar to that before to some Italian mob bosses before. But she would make it worse for her husband.

Clint nodded at Coulson's remarks as his eyes moved between him and Emma.

After a few more minutes of visiting, Fury and Coulson left to go to the airport. Everyone was still in shock that their favorite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had survived the stabbing by Loki. "You know what! This deserves a celebration! We never really celebrated that fact that we survived Loki's attack ourselves besides with shawarma. Pepper is planning my annual birthday bash for this weekend out at the old house in the Hamptons. You are all invited of course, but this gives us more of a reason to celebrate. We'll go out a few days early and relax."

No one seemed to disagree.

* * *

He slowly walked down the crowded Brooklyn street. Parts of it all seemed to be from a hazy dream to him – a past life that he couldn't remember. He shook the thoughts aside as he found his target: the Books Galore! shop. He entered the old shop and glanced all around for someone to help him or even for his target.

"Can I help you sir?" a young female voice asked.

He turned to look at a young woman, probably in her early 20s standing behind a counter. "yes, I was looking for Emma Carter. She is an old friend of mine from high school and I was in town and wanted to get back in touch with her."

"Sorry, she took a leave of absence for family reasons."

"Oh too bad. But thank you for your help," he said turning and leaving the shop.

Once outside he sighed. He wasn't used to failure. He still had another target to track. Perhaps by tracking this target – the Black Widow – he could find where Emma Carter had gone as well.


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: I don't own them – I'm just borrowing them for a bit._

* * *

**Chapter 14:**

"Why have you summoned me, Heimdall?" Thor asked as he dismounted his horse at edge of the newly repaired Bifrost.

"Return to Midgard you must. The warriors there are going to need you more than Asgard will in the near future," the gatekeeper said as he continued to gaze into the distance.

"But how can I when Loki needs to be guarded to prevent escape?"

"The Warriors Three and Sif can manage that along with many others who will take up the call," Odin said appearing behind his son. "Now go. You will know if Asgard needs your return, my son."

Thor nodded at his father's wishes and entered the opened Bifrost Bridge back to Midgard.

* * *

It was a lazy afternoon after morning workouts. Natasha and Emma had been dragged shopping by Pepper Potts for the upcoming weekend. Neither S.H.I.E.L.D. agent would admit it, but they actually did like doing feminine things from time to time. That left all the men at Stark Tower. Bruce and Tony were locked away in their respectable labs, doing who knew what while Clint attempted to teach Steve how to play modern day video games. Trying to modernize Steve was like trying to teach a blind dog to fetch was the conclusion that Clint had come up with. But he would keep that to himself for the time being and keep on trying to help Steve adjust to being 70 years in the future.

Out of nowhere, clouds began to build outside and thunder sounded. Steve and Clint jumped back in shock as the lighting struck the balcony of Stark Tower and out of it emerged the figure of Thor. "My friends!" he said as Clint opened the balcony door for him so that he didn't smash through it. "It's so good to see you!"

"Is there something wrong?" Steve asked. "What are you doing back already?"

"I am back to ensure that nothing happens to Earth under my watch. If Asgard needs me, I shall return." Thor said clasping him on the shoulder.

"So Loki is taken care of?" Clint asked, wanting to make sure that the one being that haunted his dreams was locked away.

"Yes. Guarded by the Warriors Three. His powers have been taken from him by Odin as well."

"Good to know," Clint said in relief.

* * *

This task was going to be a lot harder than it seemed. Both of these women he had been sent to bring back to his boss were not only S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but also members of the so-called "Avengers" – whoever they were. He had tracked the whereabouts of the Black Widow after his attempt to locate Emma Carter had failed. Much to his surprise, the two women were together along with another who was obviously a civilian. Where they this civilian's bodyguards?

He tracked them the rest of the day, making sure to lurk in the shadows – well out of sight. It wasn't until that afternoon, when he realized just how hard this assignment was going to be. The women were housed in the Stark Tower with its state of the art security systems along with it being the home to these Avengers, one of which he knew was the Hulk.

He would just have to figure out another way to get to his targets.

* * *

"I'm gonna tell her this weekend, Pepper."

"Tell who what?" Pepper asked confused as she set down the book she had been reading in bed and turned to look at Tony as he crawled in next to her.

"I'm gonna tell Emma Carter who she really is."

"Oh," she said going back to reading her book.

"Is that all you can say?"

"And what happens if she doesn't believe you?"

"I have all the photos of our childhood at the house. Her room is still there along with all her old stuff from when she was a kid. I've read that people with amnesia can have memories recalled by old things of theirs. That's one reason when I found out that she was joining the Avengers that I suggested the party be out at the Hamptons. So how could she not believe me?"

Pepper leaned over and kissed Tony's lips. "I just don't want you to get your hopes up that she will accept everything right away."

"That's what I got JARVIS and DNA samples for. Scientific backup."

Pepper sighed. "I honestly do not get you at times."

Tony smiled at her then pulled her close for another kiss. "Now how about this - Virginia Pepper Potts will you marry me?" he asked as he pulled back from the kiss.

Pepper gasped as she pulled back from Tony and looked at him in shock and surprise. "Wha…What did you just ask me?" she replied stumbling over her words.

From inside his pocket, Tony pulled out a dazzling diamond ring and held it up for Pepper to see. It was a large emerald cut diamond flanked by several smaller diamonds all on a white gold setting. "Will you marry me?" he asked again.

Tearfully, Pepper nodded yes as Tony slipped the ring onto her shaky finger before pulling her close and kissing her deeply.

"So I guess the next building will have your name on the lease after all," he said smiling at her.

Pepper just rolled her eyes at him before melting into his embrace. This was the perfect way to start off a long weekend.

* * *

_AN: I know that it seems like it is taking a long time to get to the good stuff….but I promise that next chapter will be the one where Emma finds out everything about her past…as for the mystery guy who is stalking Emma and Natasha, you gotta wait for a bit longer on that one. I promise action is coming soon!_


	15. Chapter 15

_Disclaimer: I don't own – I'm just borrowing the Avengers to satisfy my muse that needs to vent at times. So enjoy!  
_

* * *

Chapter 15:

Emma got out of the car and stretched. After spending two hours crammed in the backseat of the SUV that Stark had for them to use, the idea of riding on the back of Steve's motorcycle was sounding better and better. Then again she knew that if she did that then there would be hell to pay later. They still hadn't officially told everyone on the team that they were married, but most everyone got the hint – everyone except Steve.

Emma couldn't understand for the life of her why Steve Rogers posed such a threat to Clint. Perhaps it was something like why Natasha had posed a threat to her in the beginning, but not so much any more. She couldn't explain it – maybe it was the fact that Clint told her first that he and Emma were together or even that Natasha actually wasn't as bad as Emma had originally thought her to be. It had to be the fact that Natasha got to spend more time with Clint then Emma did that made her not like her in the first place, but now things were changed.

As for Steve Rogers that was an entirely different story. She knew that he still wanted to talk to her about her aunt, but with Clint and Natasha keeping her training damn near all day – she swears that Fury and Coulson were in on that, perhaps Clint as well – Emma had very little time to actually think for herself. And if she did have time to herself, she typically was not in a very talkative mood. She had been having more and more occurrences of childhood memories over the last few days. Not full fledged memories, but more like images -

A silly, yet loving older brother.

Her father upset with her for creating something for him with the help of her brother.

Her mother brushing her hair.

Small things that were coming back to her. Clint tried to help her make sense of them, but it didn't help much. Instead she was left to think on her own. Hopefully this weekend could help. Maybe talking to Steve about her aunt could open up some more memories as well.

"So here we are!" Tony said as he and Pepper walked up to the group that had piled out of the SUV. Steve had just pulled up on his motorcycle. "Since today is Thursday, we have tonight and tomorrow to sit back and relax until the party on Saturday. Besides its time for some group bonding anyways."

"Probably means that the men can drink and the women can stay out of the way," Emma muttered.

"Yeah that's about right," Tony said with a smirk before Pepper threw him a nasty glare and turned to head into the house. "What did I do? She said it!"

Emma and Natasha chuckled as the rest of them followed Tony and Pepper inside.

The house itself was magnificent, but barely furnished. "I typically don't come here often except for parties. But I promise that there are more than enough bedrooms for everyone and even a bed big enough for you big guy," Tony said patting Thor on the shoulder, after he had made amends with his fiancée. "Now everyone just kick back and relax. There's a pool out back then if you want to drive a bit, you can hit the beach. It doesn't matter. I think Pepper and I are going to run into town to pick up some things for the next few days, so if you want something special let us know."

Before she and Tony left to go into town, Pepper showed everyone the way to the various bedrooms that they would be staying in, while Tony made sure that JARVIS was online at the house – just in case the Avengers were needed.

"Here we go," Pepper said, showing Clint a bedroom with a queen sized bed. "I think the two of you will be comfortable in here. I would have given you the one with the King bed, but Thor needed that one."

"This is fine," Clint said turning to look at Emma, who should have been behind him but instead she was back down the hallways they had just come down. She was staring at a picture hanging on the wall. Clint went ahead and went into the room to set down their bags, while Pepper walked back towards Emma.

"Who are these people with Tony?" Emma asked pointing to the man and the woman behind a very young Tony Stark.

"His parents, Howard and Maria." Pepper said. "They died in a car accident when Tony was 17."

"Oh," was all Emma could say before turning and walking into the bedroom where Clint was and gently shutting the door behind her. Pepper turned back and looked at the photo. It had to be of Tony about the time that his sister was born. Perhaps Tony had been right the night before in thinking that all Emma needed was a chance to come home.

* * *

Surveying the situation out by the pool later that afternoon, Emma and Natasha came to the conclusion that the rest of the Avengers were a bunch of dysfunctional idiots. Neither Thor nor Steve knew what to make of swim trunks, while Bruce and Clint couldn't stop laughing at them. Then Tony, being Tony had proceeded to drink his way to relaxation.

"What is it again, women mature faster then men do?" Natasha asked Emma as they sat down on lounge chairs next to Pepper, who was yelling at Tony not to tease Bruce about what would happen to his swim trunks if he became the Hulk.

"I think they never mature." Emma said.

"I agree," Pepper said. "This is also why I suggested one piece swimsuits for the weekend."

Both S.H.E.I.L.D. agents agreed with Pepper on that call. "Oh before I forget, I did invite that list of people you suggested to the party this weekend. Something for your assignment from Fury?" Pepper said turning to look at Emma.

"Something along those lines."

Natasha looked at Emma for an answer. "I just figured that Fury said use our assets to get what we needed so I thought why not invite some of them to this party. Kill two birds with one stone. Besides we're going to be looking fabulous in the dresses we bought, so why not put them to a bit of good use."

"Now that's my kind of thinking." Natasha said.

* * *

After a few more hours in the sun, Emma was beginning to feel a bit light headed. It was either that or the lack of sleep was finally catching up with her. She excused herself from the rousing game of water volleyball and headed back into the house after slipping back on her shorts and t-shirt over her swimsuit. Besides Thor and Steve were beginning to take the game a bit too seriously for her liking.

As she walked back into the house, something caught her eye. Heading down onto the ground was a tiny rock stairway. The memory of herself as a child falling down a set a similar stairs came flowing back to her. Then she really began to wonder.

When she entered the house, instead of heading back to the room that she and Clint were sharing to lie down, she began to wander around the house. They had been given a tour earlier and during it one room had caught her attention. Its door was shut, but around the doorknob were painted faded pink flowers. If only she could remember where that room was.

After a few minutes of walking around, she finally stumbled upon the curious door. Glancing all around to make sure that she was still the only one in the house, she slowly twisted the doorknob and pushed opened the door. Briefly dust swirled then settled as the fresh air entered the room before Emma stepped in.

Light poured into the room from various stained glass windows, casting rainbow lighting around the room. As Emma looked around, it was obvious that this had been a little girl's room at one time. The room was filled with stuffed animals and dolls ranging from stuff to porcelain – large and small. Over in the corner sat an elaborate dollhouse and in another corner next to a canopy bed was a small table with several drawings on it. She slowly made her way over to the table and gingerly picked up one of the pieces of paper. It was a drawing of a family – there was a dad, mom, brother, sister and even a Jarvis all drawn and named on the paper. But what caught Emma's attention were the names of the brother and sister – Tony and Emma.

Moving to the bed, she sat down and stared at the drawing as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. Without thinking about it, she reached for the old teddy bear that was sitting on the bed and hugged it close to her chest and began to sob.

Was she a Stark? Was that who were parents really were? Was she actually related to Tony Stark? Why had she been lied to for so long?

"You know you always cried with that bear when you younger."

Emma gasped as she looked up. Standing in the doorway was Tony.

She quickly stood up from the bed, setting the bear back down and wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I wasn't crying. It was just a bit of dust."

"That looked like crying to me," he said moving into the room.

Emma shrugged it off and glanced away from him as she set the drawing back down on the table. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude if this room has special meaning."

She tried to leave the room, but he caught her wrist and held her back. "I'm not letting you get away that easily." Tony said stopping her.

"Excuse me?"

"There are just some things that you are going to have to learn to accept about yourself."

"Oh that is rich coming from the habitual drunk."

"I'm working on that. But what I've noticed about you, Agent Carter, is that you have anger issues. Not so much at any of us but at the world. Like you were dealt a shitty hand. Well welcome to the club!"

"I do not have anger issues."

"Then why have you always been picking fights with me since you got to the tower? Think about it. There has to be a reason behind it. Before then we've never met each other that I can recall."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're my little sister!"

Without even thinking or hesitation, Emma pulled back and sunk her free fist into Tony's eye. It was her first reaction to get away from a situation that she didn't want to be in. Sure she had just come to that conclusion herself, but she really didn't want to be confronted by Tony or anyone else for that matter at the moment. She had to let it all sink in first.

Tony stumble back and let go of her wrist. "Oh shit! I'm sorry!" she said before taking off in a sprint down the hallway. She skidded around a corner and almost crashed into Pepper.

"Umm, I accidentally punched Tony. You might want to go check on him. I'm sorry!" Emma quickly said walking past Pepper back outside.

Pepper watched her retreating form then turned her attention to Tony who was stumbling down the hallway holding his right eye.

"Let me guess, she didn't take the news too well?" Pepper asked.

"I'm really not sure."

"Come on," she said leading him towards the kitchen. "Let's get you something for that before it turns all black and blue."

* * *

Emma walked past the pool and everyone without glancing at them and down the small stairs that she remembered from her childhood. Once she was out of sight, she took of in a run towards the edge of the property. She just needed to get away from everyone for a while and get her head on straight. It was all a bit much for her to handle at the moment.

No one had paid any attention to Emma as she had walked by – that was except for Clint. She had been so quiet most of the day and that had him worried. He quickly got out of the pool, grabbed his shirt and shoes before taking off after his wife.

After a few minutes, he found her at the edge of the Starks' property that was a good half-mile a way from the house. She was standing on the edge of the bay watching the birds fly across the sky. Just by watching her back, he could tell that she was crying.

"What is it Emma?" he gently asked walking up next to her. He had learned a long time ago that it sometimes wasn't a good idea to surprise her with a touch unless you wanted to end up on the ground.

She didn't say anything as she began to cry harder. That was when Clint took his wife in his arms and held her as she sobbed.

"You figured everything out didn't you?" he eventually asked once she had stopped crying.

She nodded against his shoulder.

"You're a Stark aren't you?"

She nodded again.

"At least I got the best one of the bunch," he said trying to make her smile. She sighed and smiled a bit. Thankfully Clint knew how to make her smile.

* * *

_AN: So I think that is enough for tonight! I will bring you more sibling discussion later! So enjoy! And feedback is always appreciated! Please…oh and I do know that Clint is a tad OOC but its only because Emma is with him so he is happy. Just wait until I have her go on a mission in a few chapters…moodiness returns!_


	16. Chapter 16

_Disclaimer: I don't own them – so don't sue….I'm just a poor school teacher. The author's note is at the end._

* * *

Chapter 16:

"I still don't get why she punched you." Steve said as the group, minus Emma and Clint, sat around an outside table, enjoying the early May night and eating pizza for dinner. Tony was still nursing his swollen eye with a bag of frozen peas that Pepper insisted he keep on it.

"Tony doesn't know how tell things to people nicely or gently." Pepper said bringing him a different frozen vegetable bag. This time it was corn.

"Seriously Pepper, I've been at this for an hour. It's fine now." Tony said, trying to fight his fiancée off. But it wasn't working.

"Thor, do you mind?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, my friend," Thor said, reaching behind Tony and pulling his hands behind his back and holding them there while Pepper pressed the frozen corn to his swollen eye.

"Now you say that you don't get this Steve, but I think I do," Bruce said. "Tony had a sister who died with his parents in the car accident. But a few weeks ago, Fury told him otherwise. So now Tony thinks that Emma Carter is his sister. And since he told it to her in typical Tony Stark fashion, he ended up getting punched by a S.H.E.I.L.D. assassin."

"She is my sister." Tony said, still trying to fight off Pepper and now Thor, which was not working out.

"What proof do you have, Stark?" Natasha asked.

"Fury's word for one. I swear that female S.H.E.I.L.D. agents are all trained from a young age on how to be stealthy like yourself," he retorted as he finally just sat back and allowed Pepper to hold the frozen corn to his eye.

"I wasn't trained by S.H.E.I.L.D."

"Whatever. This is all beside the point. Emma Carter is really my little sister."

"And hopefully it doesn't tear this new team apart." Steve said getting up and leaving the table and bit frustrated by the entire situation. Natasha quickly got up from the table and followed him to try to figure out what was bugging him. Seeing that there was very little that could be done, Bruce retreated to his room to read for a bit.

"Hey big guy, you can loosen your grip a bit," Tony said throwing a look at Thor, who in returned looked up at Pepper. She nodded that it was fine that he let go. Sensing that it might be a good time to leave as well, Thor grabbed one of the half eaten boxes of pizza and retreated into the house as well, mumbling something about going to watch the 'magic box' – which obviously meant the television – leaving only Tony and Pepper outside.

Tony turned to look at his fiancée, who had since dropped her hold on the frozen bag of corn. She was glaring at him. "What?" he asked.

"I hope Steve is right and that by you going and telling Emma that you two are siblings doesn't go and tear this team apart because this has been the most family that you have had in a good long while. And believe it or not, you have been happy these last few weeks Tony. Even before Fury told you about Emma. You should have thought about them before you thought about yourself!"

She too, turned and stormed into the house, leaving him outside by himself.

Leaning back and looking up at the slowly darkening sky, Tony couldn't help but feel that all of them were actually right. He should had waited a while longer to tell Emma, but the thought of his little sister being alive after him mourning her for so long was too much. If he had been given the choice of having just one person survive that car accident, it would have been Emma. And now part of him had almost come back to life simply because he knew that she was alive. Screw how she turned out – being a S.H.E.I.L.D. assassin and all – but she was alive.

"So I take it we missed the party?"

Tony sat up straight and looked in front of him. Standing there was Clint and Emma. "No not really. Everyone just got done eating then went to do their own thing," Tony said.

"I'll just grab some of this and join Thor then," Clint said, grabbing a few of the pizza boxes and heading for the house where the television was clearly audible and Thor's booming laugh could be heard.

Emma sat down next to Tony once Clint had left the patio area. "Look I'm sorry for punching your earlier. It was a reflex of mine to get out of situations. Even my own husband knows not to sneak up on me."

"No harm, now foul." Tony said with a smile. "Pepper will hook me up with some awesome concealer before the party on Saturday and everything will be great!"

Emma managed to break a smile. "Is everything always a joke to you?"

"I honestly try not to make it that way, but it just comes out that way. But when you've been through all that I have, you try to look on the brighter side of things."

"I'm sorry that things happened the way they did." Emma said looking away, trying to fight back the tears again.

"Hey you're here aren't you? That car accident wasn't your fault. Neither was your head injury. Now it is my turn to help you remember what I can about your all too brief childhood. I know that mom and dad kept a ton of home movies and pictures of you. I'll go dig them out if you want and then embarrass you and perhaps myself in front of the rest of the team if you want."

Emma laughed a bit. "I'd like that."

The Stark siblings stood up from the table and for the first time in over 20 years shared a long overdue hug. And finally something in Tony Stark felt right – he felt complete. He had his family back.

* * *

"See, he can be a pompous ass, but he also does have his moments." Natasha whispered as she and Steve stood on the other side of the pool deck, watching the hug between Emma and Tony. They were hidden by some bushes as well. After she had caught up with him after he had left the table, they had talked for a few minutes.

She had managed to convince him to give Tony a chance with this entire sibling ordeal. Natasha would never admit, but she had begun to consider all the Avengers her family and she knew that Steve felt the same way. In fact, all the Avengers felt that way about each other and slowly they were beginning to warm up to having Emma around – that was with the exception of Clint, but that was expected.

"I hope you're right about this." Steve replied.

"Me too."

* * *

_AN: I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it took so long to get up but real life got in the way – being told I'm teaching a new subject next school year, family coming in town, breaking up with the boyfriend – so yeah. Anyways, pleaseeeeeeeeeee review! I have so many people on story alert, that one little review won't kill you will it? It makes me happy to see review alerts! Also, if you would like to see a story about the beginnings of Clint and Emma's relationship let me know and I'll write it. Peace for now!_


	17. Chapter 17

_**Disclaimer: I don't own them – so please don't sue!**_

_**I began to work on the story about Emma and Clint's relationship prior to this one. It's called 'Lady Hawk' – for those who haven't checked it out yet, please do! So enjoy this chapter! And as usual, please review!**_

* * *

Chapter 17:

"_Over here Emma! Look at mommy!"_

_Toddler Emma giggled as she happily ran across the sand towards her mother's opened arms who swooped her up and planted a big kiss on her cheek. "That's my baby girl!"_

The old home movie continued on playing more of the summer beach vacation from when Emma was a toddler and Tony had to be about 8 or 9 years old. This was the 5th home movie that had been shared so far. All the members of the team had even stuck around the watch the old home movies – mainly to see that Tony Stark had in fact had a childhood, while Thor on the other hand was enthralled by the fact that the images of Tony and Emma's youth were displayed on the magic box.

The entire time, Emma had lay on the floor, arms wrapped around a pillow watching the old movies with more and more memories coming back to her. She had seen vacations, Christmases, Birthdays and other major events that she couldn't remember but knew that she had celebrated.

"Now I know where Audrey gets that face from," Clint said from up on the couch where he was sitting next to Thor as they were still watching the summer beach vacation video where Emma and Tony building a sand castle.

"What face?" Emma asked turning to look at him.

"That look of concentration. When she is trying to get something done. See right there," he said grabbing the remote off the table and pausing the video.

"Whatever," Emma said sitting up. "I still say she inherited her facial expressions from your side of the family. She has more Barton facial expressions instead of mine."

"Excuse me you too, I hate to interrupt this little lovers quarrel," Tony said. "But can we please get back to the video. You two can argue about your daughter and her kickass genes later on."

Clint was about to start the video again, when Steve stopped him. "Wait, you and Emma have a daughter?"

They both nodded.

"Are you married?"

They both nodded again.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Tony said. "Haven't you noticed that they both always show up to everything together and are attached to the hip basically."

Steve looked around at the other team members who didn't look at all surprised. "You really didn't notice Steve?" Bruce asked.

Steve shook his head no as his cheeks turn reddish in color. "Come on guys, leave him alone," Natasha said. Tony was about to say something else before a pillow hit him square in the face. Emma was glaring at him.

"I agree," Emma said as she leaned back against Clint's legs. "Leave him alone and let's finish this movie. I'm getting tired."

Everyone settled back down and laughed at the scenes of Emma trying to walk as a toddler and smacking into things and falling on her face – everyone but Steve. He was still embarrassed that he hadn't caught on to the fact that Emma and Clint were married! How did everyone else managed to catch the signs? As the group finished watching the home movies, Steve watched Emma and Clint's interactions with each other. The touches here and there, even with her sitting against his legs on the floor. The way he was playing with her hair.

If he missed such a simple thing like this how could he be fit to lead the Avengers?

* * *

"What glorious smells are these?" Thor proclaimed as he entered the kitchen the next morning. Everyone else, but Tony, were all sitting around the breakfast area, enjoying breakfast while Emma was busy finishing up cooking.

"It's called French Toast," Emma said, placing a heaping plate of French toast in front of the Asgardian. Sausage, Bacon and Eggs soon followed. Thor began to fill a plate full of the breakfast foods. He had already learned that the food of Midgard was wonderful – especially if Emma had cooked or they had gotten pizza.

"Is that French Toast I smell?" Tony said, sleepily as he walked into the kitchen. He plopped down in a chair next to Thor and stretched.

"It is! And what a glorious thing it is!" Thor said with a mouthful of syrup and toast.

Everyone laughed.

"Now since Thor returned, he needs something for tomorrow night to wear to the party." Tony said helping himself to the scraps the Thor managed to leave behind. Emma put a few slices of freshly done toast on his plate before sitting down with everyone else as well.

"That we can handle." Pepper said. "Emma wanted to go shopping and I'm sure that we can convince Natasha to go with us as well."

"And while we are doing that, I suggest that you gentlemen make yourselves familiar with these profiles," Emma said, setting several sheets of paper in the middle of the breakfast area.

"What are these?" Bruce asked picking one up.

"These are potential A.I.M. scientists that will be in attendance tomorrow night." Natasha said. "Emma and I will use our resources to find out what we can, but we'll also need eyes watching them as well."

"Aww does this mean I can't get drunk at my own party?" Tony asked.

"Just don't get too drunk. Remember what happened last year?" Natasha said. "Your friend flew off with your armor."

"In my defense, I was dying then."

"Just limit it." Steve added.

* * *

Friday turned into Saturday without much fanfare. The girls went shopping and bought clothes that Thor could blend into society well enough in while the guys just kicked back and relaxed. That night, the guys had decided to try their hand at cooking since the girls did it so often. While the overall meal was pretty good, it was a disaster when it came to how the kitchen looked.

"Have fun cleaning," Pepper said, as she, Natasha and Emma all retreated and left the guys to clean.

"Come on Potts!" Tony called. "This isn't how it usually goes!"

"The kitchen isn't usually hit by a hurricane!"

* * *

He jumped from roof to roof as he followed the elderly woman and her granddaughter through the streets of New York. After loosing the Black Widow and Agent Carter for a few days, he went back to stake out the bookstore. He had implanted listening devices at both locations. From those wiretaps, he had learned that Emma Carter's mother in law, Edith Barton, had taken over the running of the bookshops for her daughter in law as well as taking care of her granddaughter.

But why?

Perhaps following them, he could find out. And also find out where Emma Carter was.

"Grandma, when are mommy and daddy going to come home and see us?"

"I'm not sure, Audrey. You know that they will call when they can."

The little girl nodded as they continued down the street.

Damn it. It would have been the perfect lead. But this little girl might just be the key to finding Emma Carter after all.


	18. Chapter 18

_**Disclaimer and AN: I don't own them – I am just using them to satisfy my muse, who loves to come up with random ways to torture me…so enjoy. And please review! Oh yeah – YAYAYAYAYAYA we hit 100 reviews! I always love hitting the century mark….please keep them coming! If you wanna know more about Clint and Emma's early relationship prior to Avengers, then check out 'Lady Hawk'!**_

* * *

**Chapter 18:**

Clint inhaled sharply as Emma walked out of the bathroom in her dress for the party that night. She looked absolutely stunning. She was wearing a black sequined lace halter gown with a very low back. It didn't show too much in the front but it damn near showed too much in the back with a long slit up one leg. Her long hair was curled slightly and hung around her shoulders. And to top it off she was wearing high-heeled leather sandals.

He had died and gone to heaven. The last time he had seen her dressed in anything like this was years ago during one of their many undercover ops. He could get used to this again.

"I'm going to be allowed to take that off you tonight right?" he asked, pulling her into his arms.

"Only if you're lucky and behave tonight."

Damn. He knew what that meant. They had to work. It was like old times. She would work the room and he would watch her back along with Natasha's as well since he wasn't really sure how well Steve would do at this undercover work. But that didn't mean he couldn't get in a little feel now?

His hands traveled down her slender body. He already knew that he was going to find it hard to keep his hands off of her tonight. What really sucked about this entire operation was that she wouldn't be wearing her wedding rings. Of course he would wear his, but since she was supposed to "use what her momma gave her" as he liked to think of it, that meant she had to play single. But that didn't mean he didn't. He would just watch and make sure no one got too frisky with his wife along with behaving so he could rip that dress off her later…

"Now where are you hiding your weapons?" he asked, pulling her closer to him.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she said with a smile before giving him a quick kiss then spinning out of his arms.

"Umm yes!"

* * *

"So how does this exactly work?" Steve asked nervously as he looked around at all the help that Pepper had hired to help cater and work at the party that night.

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked as she smoothed the shoulders of the light blazer that he was wearing. She too, was wearing a breath taking dress – hers was a tight fitting tube top dress that was a pearl color with a slit up one leg like Emma's had. She too was wearing high-heeled leather sandals.

"What am I supposed to do tonight?"

"Act like Steve Rogers, not Captain America. Emma and I are doing all the work. That's why we're wearing the killer dresses."

"I really don't know how to do that," he quietly said.

"Welcome to the club. I think that's why we all work so well together," Natasha said sitting down in a chair next to him. "Look at Bruce, if he let's go of his control, he becomes the Hulk. Then we have Thor, who is a god among men. As for Clint and Emma, they are a lot like me – we're all lost. We've all been so messed up in the past that we all need each other to function. Its almost that the strength of one out weights the deficits of another member of our dysfunctional group."

"And Tony?"

"He's Tony. But I actually think that being reunited with Emma will be a good thing. Perhaps some of those insecurities that he has will disappear."

"You know you're good at reading people."

"It's my job."

"Hopefully you'll be able to do it well tonight. Plus you look very nice."

"Thank you," she said. She leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek before standing back up and heading back into the house to see if Pepper needed any help before the party started.

He sat there and watched Natasha walk back into the house. The red haired agent reminded him so much of Peggy Carter. The more time he spent around her, the more time he was reminded about Peggy.

God he missed her.

* * *

Pepper glanced around at the partygoers mingling all around her. So far everything was going off without a hitch.

Thank God.

Of course, Tony had made a huge announcement that he had proposed to her and she had tearfully accepted in front of everyone at the beginning of the night. That had greatly embarrassed her, but she survived. And since then, she had gotten several congratulations and requests to see the ring that Tony had given her.

"You know that Tony broke the hearts of many women tonight, Pepper," James Rhodes said walking up to her and hugging her tightly.

"Oh I know, Rhodey," she responded with a smile.

"So he is really going to do this Avengers thing?"

"He is."

"You're proud of him aren't you?"

"Rhodey you should see how much he's changed in just a few weeks. Yes he still has his moments, but he has definitely changed."

"Yeah flying a nuke into an alien ship will do that to you."

"It wasn't just that."

"What do you mean?"

Pepper pointed at towards a young woman who was standing with Tony and one of the members of the board of directors of Stark Industries. "Her name is Emma Barton, but her maiden name is Emma Stark."

Rhodey did a double take and looked at her again. Same facial structure, hair color and even the same smile. "No way Pepper. Tony doesn't have a sister!"

"Yes he does. Jarvis has shown me the DNA data. But they are so much a like. And the scary thing is that she is an Avenger too."

"Figures with this family."

* * *

It was close to 11 p.m. and the party was winding down. Clint, Bruce and Thor all stood at the bar watching the last few guest mingle. Natasha had disappeared for a while with one of the suspected A.I.M. scientists and had yet to return while Pepper had introduced Steve to James Rhodes. The two of them sat swapping war stories down by the pool.

"Where'd Emma and Tony go off to?"

"Probably some stupid thing about the board of directors for Stark Industries wanting to meet the daughter of Howard Stark. Hell they were going to all meet her in another year or so anyways," Clint mumbled. Thor and Bruce looked at him a bit confused. Clint was in a bad mood. All night, Emma had been occupied either by having to meet important people related to Stark Industries or having to interrogate A.I.M. scientists by flirting with them. He hadn't gotten one dance with her, one kiss or even one drink. Some party. In fact he hadn't seen her in well over an hour.

From behind them, someone cleared their throat. The three guys turned around to see Tony standing there with his arm around Pepper. "Gentlemen, your presents have arrived. Sorry they are a bit late. But traffic sucked and weather was bad too. So if you will follow Pepper and myself, we will show you your gifts."

All a bit confused, the three Avengers followed Tony and Pepper to the front of the house where a stretch limo was pulling up. The group waited for the limo to stop and Happy Hogan jumped out from the driver's seat and opened the rear passenger's door. He helped the first passenger out.

"Thank you, Mr. Hogan," came a soft voice.

Thor immediately pushed his way forward and swept Jane Foster into his arms, trying not to crush her to death.

"Talk about intense," Bruce murmured to Clint, who stifled a laugh.

"Here's yours big guy," Tony said as Happy helped out the last person in the limo. Bruce inhaled deeply as he saw Betty Ross standing in front of him. "Hello Bruce," she said with a smile as she held out a hand to him. He slowly took a hold of it and walked away so that he and Betty could catch up.

"As for you," Pepper said, turning to Clint. "Your present arrived earlier. You will find it on the beach with Emma."

Clint looked in the direction that Pepper was pointing and was mildly confused and a bit curious as to what his present could be. After just a few minutes of walking, he spotted a small campfire on the beach and could hear laughter coming from near the fire. He could see Emma's figure sitting on the sand, with a smaller figure sitting on her lap – it had to be Audrey.

"Look there he is," he heard Emma say.

Out of her lap, jumped Audrey, who took off running down the beach towards her father. Clint scooped her up into his arms "Daddy! I got to ride in a helicopter!" she squealed in delight.

"Really?"

"Un hun. Mommy came and surprised me!"

By that time, Emma had walked over to them – thankfully, still in the killer dress. Clint looked at her waiting for an explanation. "Pepper's idea. Happy flew me into Manhattan, I had your mom meet us at a helipad and I picked her up. Didn't take too long."

Clint smiled and kissed her lips then kissed Audrey's cheek. "Now have you meet your Uncle Tony yet?" he asked his daughter.

"Nope!"

"Well then, today is his birthday! What do you think he needs?"

"A birthday hug!"

"Exactly! Now let's go find him and give him one!"

"You two head on up to the house and I'll grab my shoes and put out the fire," Emma said, stealing a kiss from both her husband and daughter.

She doused the fire with sand and grabbed her shoes and blanket from the ground before turning to catch back up with Clint and Audrey who were a good 50 yards in front of her by that time. But something off to the side caught her attention.

Movement.

"Clint! Get down!" she yelled, just as the gunshot erupted.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Disclaimer and AN: I don't own them, but I do own a stuffed Hawkeye that my best friend won me from the claw machine! **_

_**I hope ya'll loved my cliffie! Mwhahaha I'm evil ain't I? Anyways, with the DALLAS coming on tomorrow night and it being a big deal in my family, I probably wouldn't have a lot of time to write. So enjoy this little chapter to hold you over after that evil ending to the last chapter. As usual, review please!**_

* * *

**Chapter 19:**

The echo of the gunshot could be heard all around the Stark estate.

"Pepper, keep everyone inside!" Tony said, pushing his fiancée back towards the house. Rhodey began to help her, while Steve joined tony.

"Where did it come from?"

"The beach. Clint and Emma are down there with their daughter."

Another shot rang out, followed quickly by two more from what sounded like a smaller caliber gun. The two men began to sprint towards the gunfire. There was no time to worry about anything else.

Both Thor and Bruce had pushed their way out of the house by that time and were right behind Tony and Steve. Natasha had finally finished with the A.I.M. scientist and had sent him home in a cab, obviously drugged or something – not liked any of the Avengers would ask questions – and she too had joined in on the fight. In Thor's hand, he grasped Mjolnir tightly as he was ready for battle.

Another round of gunfire began.

Without hesitation, Thor took to the skies and immediately landed with a thunderous explosion in what was the epicenter of the gunfire battle.

"Well that's one way," Bruce said with a grin. "Or there's this."

Easily as he did during the battle with the Chitauri, Bruce transformed into the Hulk and thundered into the fray as well.

"And to think I didn't want to put my armor on," Tony said as he, Natasha and Steve kept on running.

"Hopefully you won't need it."

* * *

The first bullet had grazed her arm and the second shot was well off its mark. Thankfully whoever was shooing at them was shooting for her and not for Clint. That she could deal with. Emma hit the sand and rolled, tossing up her shoes and towel for a distraction. She quickly reached up the thigh of her exposed leg and grabbed for her concealed .22 pistol from its thigh holster and fired two quick shots in the direction the that first shot had come from.

She knew it was a lost cause. Whoever had been aiming for her obviously had night vision equipment. But that didn't mean she couldn't kick up some sand or something.

"Clint get her out of her!" she yelled towards Clint who was still kneeling in the sand with Audrey clutched tightly in his arms.

Before he could even react, more gunshots rang out – both from Emma and the mysterious shooter. In the confusion of everything, he managed to get his footing underneath him and get out of the area.

"MOMMY!" Audrey screamed as Clint ran from the scene with her in his arms. "MOMMY!"

Suddenly roll of thunder could be heard and a bolt of lighting struck the middle of the beach where Emma had been fighting. Audrey screamed again. "MOMMY!"

"Shhhh, Audrey. It's going to be okay." Clint said, holding his daughter tightly in his arms. "Help's here."

Audrey sobbed against her father's shoulder. "Mommy…" she whispered.

* * *

"Point me in the direction of the enemy, Emma," Thor said taking a defensive stance in front of Emma.

"Straight ahead as far as I can tell."

Thor raised up Mjolnir into the sky and summoned lighting before pointing it straight head of him. A muffled thud could be heard as someone was trying to escape. About that time, Hulk came thundering through the bushes and grabbed the would be assassin by the scruff of the neck. He tossed him like a rag doll onto the beach in front of Emma and Thor.

"Hulk smash gun!" Hulk said as he smashed the sniper rifle that had been used to shoot at Emma.

By then, Tony, Steve and Natasha had reached the beach. Clint had made his way back up to the house. Audrey would be safest there. She was his main concern at the moment because he knew that Emma and the others could handle themselves with one assassin.

"So does anyone know who this is?" Tony asked.

Natasha knelt by the body and brushed the long hair out of the unconscious face. "I think this is Winter Solider. He's a former KGB spy. But I have no idea who he is working for now."

"Let's get him over to the small guest house. It's not being used right now. We can search him there. Then we'll call in S.H.E.I.L.D.," Tony suggested. "Hulk could you carry him please?"

Hulk picked up the unconscious assassin off the ground and flung him over his shoulder and carried him towards the small guesthouse that wasn't being used. Everyone followed behind him.

Everyone but Steve.

As soon as he had seen Winter Soldier's face in the dim moonlight a flood of memories had come back to him. Whoever Natasha had said this guy was actually wasn't the truth. The truth was he was Bucky Barnes.

But he looked damn near the same as he did the day of that last mission on the train.

What had happened to him for the last 70 years?


	20. Chapter 20

**_Disclaimer and AN: I don't own them - just borrowing them for a bit. I promise that last chapter really didn't mean to be a cliffie! I had no intention of writing it that way. Sorry! Now in this chapter there is a conversation but I included in brackets next to what I was trying to say in English. So if it's wrong, blame the free online translator I used since my friend who lives in Russia is on vacation right now and couldn't translate stuff for me. Also if you love this story, then pleaseeeee check out "Lady Hawk" - it's my other Avengers story. Enjoy!_**

* * *

**Chapter 20:**

Tony had tried to get information out of him without any luck. Clint passed on interrogation saying he rather use a bow for interrogation then words. Steve didn't even want to try. Nor did Thor and Hulk just threatened to smash Winter Solider to bits. That just left Emma and Natasha to get any information out of him before calling in S.H.E.I.L.D. and turning him over.

Emma and Natasha sat across from this supposed him and just glared. Neither of the said anything to him or even looked at each other. The other Avengers stood behind them against the wall of the living room of the small guesthouse.

"Мы можем сделать это легкий путь или твердый путь" (We can do this the easy way or the hard way) Emma finally said in Russian as she set her gun down on the table in front of him.

Winter Solider said nothing as Natasha nodded in agreement as she twirled a knife in her hands.

"Что Вы делаете здесь? И что Вы хотите?" (What are you doing here? And what do you want?) Natasha asked next.

"Вы и она," (you and her) he said with a smile.

"Кто послал Вам?"(Who sent you?) Emma said picking her gun up, pointing it at him and pulling back the hammer, readying the gun to fire. Behind her, the Hulk menacingly made his hand into a fist like he was getting ready to hit him if he didn't answer the question.

"Lukin. Aleksander Lukin," he said in English.

Natasha stopped twirling her knife and Emma stood up from the chair, turned and walked away – only to turn around a second later and fire the bullet that was in the chamber of her gun at Winter Solider. It grazed past his right ear and impaled itself into the far wall. "Get him the hell away from me before I kill him," she said as she walked by her husband. "My next shot won't miss."

She stormed out of the house with Natasha right behind her.

"So what do we do now?" Steve asked.

"Call Fury and get him the hell out of here. He can rot in jail like Lukin's other lackeys." Clint said. "Besides Lukin will probably join him shortly because if Emma and Natasha both are his targets, then he is as good as dead."

Steve sighed. He had to tell someone the truth. Winter Solider wasn't bad – just…hell he didn't even know what was wrong with him. But with the way that Emma and Natasha were acting towards him, he doubted that anyone would believe him anyways.

* * *

"Emma wait!"

Emma turned around as she was walking back towards the main house. All she wanted to do was clean up her arm, get out of the dress she was in and hold her daughter in her arms. Natasha quickly caught up with her. "What did Lukin do to you?" she asked.

"Basically his son killed me. Tried out some freakish new drug or something on me. Shut down all my organs. Took a while to recover. I still have nightmares from time to time. What about you?" Emma said walking again.

Natasha didn't say anything.

"Wait did he have something to do with Red Room?"

"Yeah."

"Well then I think we need to pack up and head to mother Russia. What do you think?"

"Couldn't agree more."

* * *

Audrey clung tightly to her mother as Emma gently rocked her back and forth on the bed. The little girl's tiny frame shook as sobs racked against her tiny chest. Clint stood in the doorway and silently watched the scene before him. Being apart from his wife and daughter so often didn't allow for him to watch moments like these and these were always the moments were Emma's true nature shined – her love for him and their daughter.

"Shh baby. It's ok. Mommy's safe." Emma said to her daughter as she kissed Audrey's tear stained face.

Audrey pulled away from resting her head on her mother's shoulder and wiped her runny nose on her arm before Emma began to clean both Audrey's arm and face off with a damn cloth. "But mommy there was guns and loud booms! You were screaming at daddy to run!" the little girl sniffled.

"I had to make sure that you were safe."

"But what about daddy? Isn't he supposed to protect you?"

"Yes, daddy is supposed to protect to mommy," Clint said joining to conversation. He sat down on the bed next to his wife and daughter. "But mommy and I are both supposed to protect you. Plus I knew mommy would be ok."

"Why?" the little girl asked yawning a little.

"Because our friends were there to protect her." Clint said picking Audrey up and giving her a hug and a kiss while Emma pulled back the sheets on the bed. "Now you need to get some sleep," he said tucking her into bed. He kissed her cheek one more time before Emma did the same.

"We're in the room right next to you Audrey if you need us. Love you."

"Love you too mommy and daddy," the little girl sleepily said.

They both quietly left the room, turning out the light and shut the door all but a crack. "Come on Emma. Let's get that arm cleaned up before Fury gets here." Clint said, leading Emma into their room.

Out of habit, Emma followed without question. After so many missions, old habits die-hard. Clint would always clean up Emma first then she would clean him up. That's just how it was. Another old habit that Clint never got rid of was going anywhere without a well stocked first aid kit in his suitcase. He set Emma down on the bed while he grabbed the first aid kit and a few damp towels from the bathroom.

"It's not very deep," Emma said. "Only a graze."

"Then this shouldn't take but a minute or two," he said, using a damp towel the clean all the dried blood away. "I bet I even put some of Audrey's cute Hello Kitty Band-Aids in here. Would that make you feel better?"

Emma turned and glared at Clint. "Right no Hello Kitty," he said as he applied a regular bandage to her arm.

Just as Clint finished, the hum of a S.H.E.I.L.D. Quinjet engine could be heard landing nearby. Thank goodness. This night needed to end. He was worn out and he knew Emma was as well.

* * *

"Until we figure out who exactly this Winter Solider is and why Aleksander Lukin has him coming after Widow and Emma, no one is doing anything," Fury said. "Enjoy tomorrow but on Monday everyone reports to me at Stark Tower. And not going after Lukin goes double for you two."

Fury pointed at Emma and Natasha. Both of their eyes narrowed at their boss. "I know that both of you have history with the Lukin. I will not let this become an agency for personnel vendettas! Have I made myself clear?"

They both nodded.

"Good."

Thor carried the unconscious Winter Solider onto the Quinjet and strapped him in for Fury. "What did you do to him anyway?" Fury asked.

"The Hulk got a little angry with him for saying that he was supposed to kill Widow and Emma, so he hit him on the head. He should be ok in a few hours," Bruce said.

Fury didn't say anything as he boarded the Quinjet and it took off. Everyone turned to head back into the main house and crawl into bed since it was almost 3 am by that time. The last one inside was Steve. He still was troubled by the fact that Winter Solider was actually Bucky Barnes. He knew that he was. It was just that he needed to tell someone, but whom could he actually trust that information with?

He'd worry about it in the morning. Perhaps sleeping on the issue would give him some idea of who to talk to about it.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Disclaimer: I don't own them – I'm just borrowing them for a bit. Sorry for the lateness – between being sick and a mini vacation, I've been busy.**_

* * *

**Chapter 21:**

Something heavy landed on top of Clint's right side of his body and quickly rolled off of him to land in between his and Emma's bodies. He had a pretty good idea what had landed on him – Audrey.

He slowly opened his eyes and glanced at the clock on the bedside table.

5:30 a.m.

Jesus. He and Emma had barely gotten to sleep a little over 2 hours ago after handing over Winter Solider to S.H.E.I.L.D.

Turning on his other side, he spotted a tangle of hair hiding underneath the covers of the bed next to Emma's now waking form. Turning over, she looked at her husband for an explanation as to what was going on. He mouthed 'Audrey' at her and pointed to the lump under the sheets.

"Audrey, what's wrong?" he asked, pulling the sheet back a few seconds later.

Their daughter lay in a tightly curled ball with her pink teddy bear clutched tightly in her arms, trying to act like she wasn't there. "Sweetheart was it a bad dream?" Emma gently asked, as she rubbed her daughter's back. Audrey nodded yes.

Given that Clint had spent very little time at home with his family, he really wasn't sure how to handle this situation. So he watched Emma work her motherly magic.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" she asked.

Audrey shook her head no.

"Do you want to stay in here with us?" she asked next.

The little girl looked up at her mom and shook her head yes.

"You know the rules," Emma said. "Go get a blanket and your pillow."

The little girl scampered off the bed and out the door.

Clint looked at his wife in utter amazement and confusion. Amazement about how she handled the situation and confusion about what she had said to Audrey. "Rules?" he asked.

"Yeah. My bed or our bed is ours. Hers is hers. So she sleeps on the floor if she is scared. It's called boundaries."

"You're a great mom," he said stealing a kiss, before Audrey returned dragging a blanket from the other room and her pillow. Clint got up out of bed and folded the blanket for Audrey so that it formed somewhat of a pad underneath her and still allowed her to curl up in it. He tucked her in all nice and tight.

"There you go," he said making sure a last time that she was all tucked in tight with her pink teddy bear.

"Promise nothing will get me daddy?"

"I promise nothing will get you in here. Plus I'll get them with my bow and arrows before they do," he said kissing Audrey's cheek before crawling back into bed with Emma.

As he lay back down to try to get a few more hours of sleep, Emma snaked her arms around him as she snuggled against his shoulder. "And you're a great dad," she whispered in his ear as she kissed his cheek.

Clint smiled and wrapped his arm around Emma as they both fell back to sleep. He couldn't help but hope that things didn't get out of hand with Lukin again. That was the last thing that Emma needed. It was the last thing that he needed. And if he found out that Lukin had used Audrey or his mother in any way to get to Emma, then Lukin was as good as dead.

* * *

"Who is the munchkin?" Bruce asked as he walked into the kitchen the next morning and found Clint attempting to make some sort of breakfast for a little girl. He had just seen Betty off. She had to get back to the university at a decent hour, which saddened him a bit. But at least he had been able to reconnect with her for a few hours. And they had made plans to meet up again in a few weeks in New York City.

"This is Audrey. She's mine and Emma's daughter." Clint said as he burned himself on a frying pan. He yelped and sucked on his burned finger lightly.

"Don't burn them daddy! I don't like them burned!" Audrey squealed from the chair she was sitting in.

Bruce walked over and glanced at what Clint was attempting to cook. He cocked an eyebrow as he looked down at the frying pan. All that he could see in the frying pan was two burned hunks of something that somewhat resembled a warped Pikachu. "What were those supposed to be?" Bruce asked.

"Kitty pancakes."

"Now I see why Emma does all the cooking around here," Bruce said patting his friend's shoulder as he went to go sit down by Audrey at the kitchen breakfast bar. Clint sighed and scraped the burned chunks of batter into the garbage can with his previous three tries.

"Oh wow, what smells like it crawled in here and burned to a crisp?" Tony asked walking into the kitchen a minute later, yawning a bit.

"I give up!" Clint said, throwing the frying pan into the sink. "That's it! We're going out to eat breakfast! Come on Audrey, go wake up your mom."

Bruce and Tony watched Clint usher Audrey out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

"Was it something I said?" Tony asked, looking at Bruce who was laughing.

* * *

The waitresses weren't really sure what to make of the group that had come into their diner for a late morning breakfast. Either they were shocked to see the Tony Stark in their presence or the large group he had brought with him or they were impressed with the appetite of the rather large man who was with them.

While everyone ordered normal size breakfasts, Thor ordered 12 pancakes, 12 eggs, 12 sausages, and 12 pieces of bacon. Then after he had finished off that ordered, he ordered it all once again.

"Sorry about my friend," Tony said as they were leaving. "He is training for the upcoming football season."

"Oh it's alright Mr. Stark. We've just never seen anyone who could eat 24 pancakes in one sitting," the waitress names Doris said. "Along with all the sides."

Tony smiled and paid for the meals, making sure that he left a generous tip. He headed to join everyone else outside on the sidewalk.

"So what is everyone's plans for today?" he asked pulling Pepper close to him.

Everyone, still worn out from the night before, didn't say anything. "Sleep sounds good to me," Steve said for the group. "It was a long night and an early morning."

"Boring!" Tony said. Pepper elbowed him.

"How about we all just relax," Bruce suggested. "I bet that Thor would love to spend some time with Jane and I know the Clint and Emma want to spend time with Audrey. We can kick back and relax for one more day before returning to the craziness of our real lives."

In agreement, the group began to walk through the town, glancing in the windows of various shops on the way back to the cars that they had ridden in. Everyone was actually talking and enjoying the late morning sun. Clint balanced Audrey on his shoulders as they walked.

"DADDY!" Audrey squealed. "PUPPIES!"

Clint looked at where his daughter was frantically pointing from his shoulders. In the window of a nearby store was a display of Labrador puppies – yellow, black and chocolate. Clint stopped for a second so that Audrey could look at the puppies. He took her off his shoulders and set her down on the ground.

"Aww they are cute," Jane Foster said walking over and looking at the puppies as well. "Which one do you like?"

"That one!" Audrey said pointing at the only black Labrador in the group. "He looks lonely."

"But his brothers and sisters are with him," Clint said picking her back up and putting her back on his shoulders before walking away. "So the puppy is fine."

"Aww daddy," Audrey said. "I really want a puppy!"

"No Audrey."

The rest of the way to the car, Audrey pouted. When Clint took her off his shoulders when they got to the car that Tony let them borrow, she was giving her father a sad face as he put in into the car seat and buckled her in.

Clint avoided looking at his daughter as he climbed in the drivers seat and Emma got in the passengers side. She snickered a bit at him.

"What?" he asked.

"She's going to bug you all day." Emma warned. "Be prepared for the Barton begging eyes that she inherited from you."

"My eyes do not beg."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Really now? How about the other night when you got in the shower with me?"

"Well…that wasn't…"

"And the other day after working out the Steve and Natasha? I was all hot and nasty and you just had to turn on the Barton begging eyes…"

"It was just that you were looking so sexy!" he said in a hushed whisper so Audrey couldn't hear him.

"Believe what you want, but Clint she has your eyes. Just you wait and see," she whispered back.

Clint really hoped that she was wrong. He hated to tell Audrey no, especially since he had been gone so often. He felt like he had to make things up to her at times even though Emma pointed out that Audrey didn't remember many things before her third birthday.

He'd just wait and see.

* * *

"So who was Audrey staying with while you two are at Stark Tower?" Tony asked sitting down at the table, with Emma and Clint, who were watching Audrey swim with Thor, Jane and Bruce. Pepper and Natasha were lying out on the other side of the pool.

"My mom came to stay with her and run the book shops as well." Clint said.

"Book shops?" Tony asked.

"Yeah they were my aunts before she died and when I became pregnant with Audrey, I took a leave of absence from S.H.E.I.L.D. and began running them. They really aren't that big but they pay they bills." Emma explained.

"You do know that you have an inheritance waiting for you," tony said. "My father's long time attorney told me last night. He had known all along that you were alive. But it was some deal with S.H.E.I.L.D. to keep it from you and I both until you were like 32 or something."

"Twenty five years," Emma said. "It was what everyone told me about my personnel file. I could read the sealed parts and find out about my family when I was 32. Oh well I found out sooner!"

"Please let her get drunk and so I can feel her up," Clint mumbled. "I want a repeat of that birthday night…"

Emma's eyes shot over to look at him and he smiled. He knew that he'd better behave himself for the next little bit or else it would be a very cold few nights in bed.

"Anyways, I'm not really sure how much the inheritance is. But I'm pretty certain it's over a..."

Tony scribbled down a number on a piece of paper and handed it to Emma. She and Clint looked at it then at each other. "Are you shitting me?" she said. "That's like 9 zeroes!"

"Give or take one or two. It's just a guess but with interest and all, it's just a rough estimate. I based it on the amount that I inherited after mom and dad died."

"I think we can buy an island and send Audrey there to be safe," Clint said. "It's either there or boarding school."

"Boarding schools are a bad idea. You and I both hated boarding school growing up – myself more than you since you only had to go for one year. So please don't send my only niece to boarding school. Plus she's still too young. And I think sending her to an island isn't a good idea either. Too isolated. How would you know if anything happened to her until it was too late."

"Wait…you own an island?" Emma asked.

"Yeah a few, but that's not the point I'm trying to get at here. What I'm trying to say is, I'm pretty sure that Audrey would be a lot safer with all of us at Stark Tower."

"Whoa. Wait a minute. Where is this coming from?" Clint asked.

"After Fury left last night, I got to thinking. How could of Winter Solider known we were here? Jane Foster is still under S.H.E.I.L.D. protection and Betty Ross is under surveillance. That left only your daughter. I contacted Fury and suggested that your townhouse be swept for listening devices, wiretaps, and other things of that nature. He said he would send a mop up crew out there to see what they could find. And yeah, your house had been bugged. And don't worry Clint, your mom is safe – she was out running errands when the mop up crew was there."

Neither of them knew what to think. They had thought that by removing themselves from their daughter's life that she would be protected, but they had been wrong. Perhaps Tony was right, she needed to be with them.

"We'll think about it Tony," Emma said. "But if she does come to live there then you know that the floor Clint and I are on now isn't big enough for her to stay on with us and Thor."

"Oh I've figured that out already too! We'll move Thor to the floor with Bruce and then we'll remodel the floor your on to make it seem more like an actual home then a floor of rooms."

"Okay that is more then I needed to hear right now." Clint said. "This can all be discussed later if we decide to let Audrey move in to the tower."

"So I'll let you two discuss things then while I go and bother Pepper and Natasha some then!"

They watched Tony scamper to the other side of the pool, pick up Pepper and throw her into the pool. In response, Natasha shoved him in. it was actually pretty funny to watch. After the commotion had died down, Clint turned to look at his wife who was watching Audrey laughing at the antics of Tony, Bruce and Thor.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"What if we were wrong at first Clint?"

"As in?"

"Leaving her behind," she said turning to look at him. "I've never spent more than a few days away from her since she was born. And this last week was horrible. That was one of the reasons why I went to get her last night. As much as I want to come back to S.H.E.I.L.D., be an Avenger, see you every single day and help save the world, none of its going to mean a damn thing if I can't see her."

"What about if the tower is attacked?"

"What about if Winter Solider had attacked her and your mother?"

Emma had a point. Having Audrey in the tower, she could be better protected from everything – including those who wanted to hurt them. Besides, Tony would probably figure out some way to get Audrey out of the tower in case there ever was an attack if they asked for it.

"You know that I missed her too Emma. I always missed you both whenever I was on assignment and not at home," he said, placing his hand against her cheek. "I know that I've missed so much of her growing up and I don't want to miss any more."

"And you shouldn't!"

"But our our lives aren't normal…"

"I just found out that Tony Stark is my brother. My life is NEVER going to be normal again. But in all honesty, this is the most normal I think that we're ever going to have. I mean look at us; we've all become each other's family. Yes some of us are related by blood, some of us by marriage, but we've all grown as friends."

Clint leaned in and kissed Emma's lips softly. "I want her to stay with us. And I know you do too."

Emma nodded. "Thank you, Clint."

* * *

Steve sat in the living trying to read one of the history books that he had bought from Emma's shop a few weeks ago. But his eyes just kept glancing over the words on the page because his mind was still trying to process the scenes from the night before.

Natasha turning over the body of Winter Solider and him seeing the face of Bucky.

Winter Solider saying that he had been sent to kill Emma and Natasha.

Emma's shot grazing past his eye and impaling in the wall.

Hulk hitting him on the head for saying that he was going to kill Emma and Natasha.

The one thing he still wasn't clear on, besides the entire thing about how Bucky had become Winter Solider, was why Emma and Natasha both hated this Lukin guy so much. He didn't dare ask Natasha because she seemed to be in pretty much a bad mood since last night and Emma was too preoccupied with her daughter being there. Plus she might shoot him for asking.

"What are you reading now?"

Steve looked up, startled out of his thoughts and saw Emma standing next to him looking down at the book he was reading. He hadn't of even heard her come inside.

"Oh one of the books I bought from your shop a few weeks ago."

"Is it good?"

"I'm barely into it. But I will let you know."

She nodded and began to walk towards the kitchen, which seemed to be her original destination. But he had to know why she – and if she would tell about Natasha – hated Lukin so much. Perhaps it would shine a light on the entire Bucky situation. "Wait Emma, I need to ask you something."

She stopped and turned around. "Why do you dislike this Lukin so much?"

"I hate him with every fiber in my body."

"What did he do to you?"

"Oh it was his son who did it to me. But he was the one who funded his son's creation. So I blame him."

"Creation?"

"Some weird type of drug that makes you feel like you are burning on the inside."

"Damn."

"But I was given too much."

Steve looked at her funny for a second as she walked back towards him and took the book from his hands. "Watch," she said turning her focus to the book.

He watched both her and the book. Briefly he swore that he eyes flashed a vivid yellow color before the book burst into flames. "Oh my God!" he yelled jumping up. "Are you ok?"

Emma smiled as she walked into the kitchen still carrying the burning book in her hand. She turned on the kitchen sink and dosed the book along with her hand with water. "see no burns," she said holding up her hand. "Sorry I owe you a new book."

Not sure what to say, Steve just gaped at her. "Somehow, though no one has been able to explain it to me, one of my genes go rewritten thanks to the injections of that drug. After a while, I learned that it was caused by anger. So just holding something, I won't set it on fire in case you are thinking that."

"Does anyone else know?"

"On this team? Just Clint and now you. It's no big deal to me. But that is the reason why I hate Lukin and anyone associated with him."

Emma turned and reached into the refrigerator for an apple juice for Audrey before heading back toward the outside where everyone else was. "Why don't you come out and join us? It is the last day of vacation before returning to the craziness of our lives."

"I'll be out there in a minute."

She nodded.

As Emma left, Steve couldn't help but wonder what other secrets she or the other team members were holding back from him and each other. He had his secrets for sure.

* * *

_**AN**: Think of what happened to Emma, like what happened to the Fantastic Four to a certain extent except with a drug instead of cosmic radiation. Please leave me comments below in the snazzy new comments box!_


	22. Chapter 22

_**Disclaimer: I don't own them….just borrowing for a bit. Enjoy!**_

_**A special thanks to XPoppyX who has let me bounce several ideas off her!**_

* * *

**Chapter 22:**

"Nothing, absolutely nothing has been gotten from this so called Winter Solider," Fury said as he paced back and forth in front of the Avengers. "He refuses to talk, eat and even sleep. He's been in our custody a little over 24 hours and it seems like Widow and Emma had better luck with him."

"Did you try speaking in Russian?" Tony asked. "That's what they did."

Fury glared at him with his only eye.

"So where's Lukin now?" Widow asked.

"He's state side."

"So let's go get him and bring him in." Clint said.

"As easy as that sounds, we can't. And killing him is too suspicious since he is such a huge public figure." Fury said.

"HE TRIED TO HAVE ME AND WIDOW KILLED!" Emma yelled standing up. Her hands were balled into fists as her hands and lower arms burned yellow and red. "LOOK AT WHAT HIS SON DID TO ME!"

"Emma calm down," Fury said putting a hand on her shoulder before she hit anything, which she was known to do. He motioned for Clint to get up and help calm her down. He could tell that most of the others did not know about Emma's end result of the run in with Lukin's son. Clint took her off to the side and whispered something to her. Slowly her arms began to turn back to normal skin tones.

Once Emma was calmed back down, Fury turned his attention back to everyone else. "So until we get this situation figured out, keep working on that A.I.M. assignment I gave you last week. If anything else pans out with Winter Solider, I will let you know."

Everyone sat in silence for a moment after Fury left. "Umm care to explain what the hell that was?" Tony asked after a few seconds of silence as he stood up and moved towards his sister who was still standing. He picked up her hands and looked them over. He was amazed that there was no scarring from whatever had been done to them.

"Gene manipulation thanks to this drug that Lukin's son over injected me with about nine years ago." Emma said, watching her brother look at her hands. "Emotions, mainly intense anger, cause it to surface."

"Incredible," Bruce said, joining Tony. "Can you manipulate it in any way?"

Emma was beginning to get a little uncomfortable in talking about her 'fiery' problem. She hated to talk about it. Clint took notice of Emma's change in mood.

"Yeah she can. But it's not much. Just gives her a fiery punch." Clint said as he physically moved Emma back towards the couch so that the team could finish talking about their current mission – figuring out what A.I.M. was up to.

"Moving on," Steve said. "Did we uncover anything this weekend about A.I.M.?"

Natasha went first, describing the various scientists that she talked with on Saturday night about their jobs. She got little to nothing from them, except that they were working on a major energy project that would reshape the world, as everyone knew it. Emma agreed with her, saying that was about what she got as well.

"The Tesseract has the ability to reshape worlds in someone's image." Thor said. "The user has to understand how to control, but they could."

"But this isn't the Tesseract." Tony said. "That is back in Asgard."

"Correct."

"I'll work out some tracking programs to see if we can get a track on that signature that S.H.E.I.L.D. had last week to see if it's the same as the Tesseract." Banner said.

"Sounds good," Steve said.

Bruce and Tony retreated to the lab to begin working on a program for the tracking system, while Steve and Natasha headed down to the gym to work out along with Thor. Natasha was working with both of them to help them adjust to either living in the 21st century or living on Earth in general. Emma and Clint were going to join them in a few minutes, but they had some family matters to take care of first.

Heading back down to their assigned floor, they could hear Audrey reading a book aloud. Emma opened the door a crack so that she and Clint could listen better.

"I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am." Audrey slowly read from the Dr. Seuss book that she held on her lap as she sat on her parent's bed with teddy on her lap. They stood there for a few more minutes, listening as Audrey slowly finished reading the book. She stumbled over a few words, but for the most part she managed to get most of the words on her own.

"That was a good job!" Emma said opening the door.

Audrey quickly hid her face behind the book and giggled. "What's so funny munchkin?" Clint said kneeling on the bed and tickling his daughter.

"Nothing daddy!" she said squealing with laughter.

"No I think there is," he said still tickling her. "You're embarrassed because we caught you reading and you were doing a good job!"

Audrey kept laughing and squealing as her father kept tickling her. After a minute or so longer, Clint stopped tickling his daughter and pulled her into his lap as he leaned back against the pillows on the bed. He picked up the Dr. Seuss book that she had been reading. "So would you eat green eggs and ham?" he asked flipping through the book as Audrey sat next to him on the bed.

"Yucky!" she said sticking her tongue out.

Next to them, Emma sat down as well. "What about purple eggs and ham?" she asked.

Audrey shook her head no again.

"So what would you eat?" Clint finally asked.

"Scrambled!" the four-year-old happily said.

"Scrambled eggs are good," Clint said. "Especially if mommy cooks them."

Audrey nodded in agreement. "Mommy's cooking is better than grandma's!" Audrey said beginning to list off the things that Emma makes for her that she likes. "Mommy makes me kitty pancakes with scrambled eggs. And cuts the crusts off my sandwiches. And makes faces on my apples. And makes me chocolate chip cookies!"

"Well what if you could see mommy and I both almost every day?"

The little girl's face lit up in a huge smile. "Really daddy?"

Clint nodded yes as Audrey launched herself at him. She wrapped her tiny arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. She then moved and hugged her mother.

"Now there will be rules because our friends will be living here too," Emma said. "And there will be times you won't see us. But it won't be like last week."

Audrey nodded and hugged her mother again. Clint watched from the side as Emma held Audrey in her arms and he smiled. Deep in his heart, he hoped that with this entire Lukin ordeal going on that having Audrey around would keep her emotions in check.

* * *

After making sure that Audrey had a movie playing in the common area and was being monitored by JARVIS, Emma and Clint made their way down to the gym for a training session with Steve, Natasha and Thor.

While Clint went off to shoot some arrow, Emma helped Natasha show Steve some other hand-to-hand combat techniques. Thor simply stood off to the side and watched. One problem that Steve was having a hard time adjusting to was that fact that he shouldn't hit a girl. That was until Emma put on these odd looking gauntlets – a lot like Natasha's spider bites.

"What are those?" Steve asked.

"For my fiery problem," Emma said with a smile as the gauntlets began to glow softly.

She and Steve got back into sparring position. Within seconds, Emma sent a roundhouse kick towards him, but he dodged it only to receive a flaming right hook to his face. Steve hit the mat and grabbed for his face where it felt like it was burning. He had no idea where that had come from or what exactly had hit him.

"It will go away in a few minutes," Emma said helping him back up.

"Again," Steve said.

Emma got back in position, but never once landed another punch or kick against Steve. Even Natasha had a hard time taking down Steve. "At least he's a fast learner," Emma said once they were finished.

"Now if only we could get him to use a cell phone," Natasha replied. The two women laughed.

"What's so funny?" Clint asked walking towards them from the shooting range.

"Just talking about Steve and his lack of using technology." Emma said. "You know, you should help him out! You were teaching him about video games at one time, so why not help him out with every thing else."

"That's actually a good idea!" Natasha said.

Clint wasn't so sure. It could be more trouble then it seemed.

* * *

"So any luck yet boys?" Emma asked walking into the lab. She had quickly showered and changed after her workout and was now going to bother her brother some. Besides she needed to talk to him about Audrey.

Bruce and Tony both looked up from their computers at her. Bruce just shook his head in disbelief and went back to work, while Emma walked over to tony to see what he was doing. "So any decision made about Audrey?" Tony asked, quickly typing out a long sequence of computer code.

"Yeah, that's what I came to talk to you about. But if you're busy I can leave."

"Nope," he said. "I'm done for now. Let's go upstairs and talk."

Tony led her out of the lab and upstairs to his and Pepper's apartment. "So what's the decision?" he asked, pouring himself a drink then taking a sip.

"I thought you said you were working on the drinking issue."

He glanced over the rim of the half tipped glass at his sister then set the glass back down before any of the liquor had touched his lips. "A work in progress."

"Anyways, Clint and I agree that you are right. Audrey would probably be the safest here at the tower."

"Good choice! I'll have the crews start the remodeling tomorrow."

"Wait, I wasn't done. There are just a few things that I'm requesting. First, our apartment needs to be like a complete apartment – it needs a living room, kitchen, and a room for Audrey along with her own bathroom. The works. Also it needs an extra room or two for guests and a nanny for Audrey. A study would be nice too but not a necessity. Oh and there needs to be a way for her to escape the building if there is an attack on it."

"Your ideas are going to take up two floors."

"We'll pay for it. Oh and if possible only have the elevator connecting on the main part of the apartment with the bedrooms isolated on the second floor."

"Demandy aren't we?"

"If we're going to let her stay, then we want her to have as close to a normal life as possible. Yes we will both still be apart of this team, but we want to be able to live with her as well."

"Understandable."

"So you think that you can do this?"

"Of course! It might take a few weeks, but we can get it done. We'll just move you to the floor below the gym and expand the gym and the common area, which I was wanting to do anyways."

"That sounds good. See it works out for everyone!"

The next few days were busy for all the Avengers. Between remodeling work on Clint and Emma's new apartment and tracking the movements of A.I.M., it always seemed that there was something going on at Stark Tower.

During one afternoon, Clint and Emma met up with his mother to discuss what was going. While Edith Barton agreed that it was best that her granddaughter be with her parents, she was a little hesitant about her living in a tower full of heroes.

"If you're that worried mom, then stay and live in the townhouse. If things get too bad at the tower, then we will send Audrey back to live with you," Clint finally said trying to appease his mother. "Then you can still run the book shops as well."

"That in all honesty would be a great help!" Emma said almost pleading with her mother in law.

"I'll stay," Edith Barton said with a smile. "It's hard enough to raise a child. But raising a child and protecting the world – I don't know how you two do it!"

"Sometimes, neither do I." Emma said smiling.

* * *

That afternoon when they got back to the tower, they were greeted by an unexpected surprise. Audrey sat in front of the elevators, laughing her head off as a black ball of fur was licking her face. "Look what Uncle Tony got me!" she squealed in delight when she saw her parents. The little girl held up the chubby black Labrador puppy the best that she could. "Can I keep it daddy?"

Clint was about to say no since he had so adamantly told her no to a puppy about a week ago. But when he saw Audrey's blue eyes looking up at him, he melted to a big puddle of daddy goo. Dammit, Emma was right. She had his eyes.

He knelt down and petted the puppy behind the ears. "Sure. But you are going to have to learn to take care of him because he isn't always going to be small."

Emma shook her head in disbelief. Clint had fallen for the Barton begging eyes. It was about time he got a taste of his own medicine. Besides they had agreed a long time ago, that when it came to pets those would be Clint's decisions.

"So what are you going to name him?" Emma asked, joining her husband and daughter on the floor.

Audrey put her finger under her chin like she was thinking. "Hmmm," she said. "Elvis!"

"Elvis?" Clint asked.

"Yup! I heard you and Uncle Thor talking about a guy named Elvis the other day and I thought it funny name."

"Ok Elvis it is then!"

* * *

"Really a puppy? You couldn't of gotten her like a gold fish or something smaller at first?" Emma said bitching at her brother as they sat in a near by park later that afternoon, watching Audrey and Elvis run around for a bit.

"She just seemed so hung up on wanting a puppy the other day. And I had to make up for missed birthdays." Tony said with a smile.

"You missed four. She has her fifth next month."

"Well then better get planning!"

"I can't wait for you and Pepper to have kids!" Emma said with an evil grin. "I have lots of time to prepare."

"Honestly, I don't like the sound of that."

"You shouldn't. But there is one thing that I give you credit for."

"What's that?"

"You did manage to buy everything that Elvis needs. Except it would be great if we didn't have to come all the way to the ground floor every time he had to go to the bathroom."

"Thought of that too. I'm installing a balcony to your apartment and putting in a small patch of grass that Elvis can use."

Emma leaned over and kissed her brother's cheek. "Whenever you and Pepper do have kids, you'll make a good dad."

"Mind telling her that?"

She laughed.

* * *

"Kitty pancakes for you," Emma said placing two kitty pancakes on Audrey's plate then turning back to the stove and make a huge stack for the rest of the Avengers who were just beginning to trickle into the kitchen the next morning.

At her feet, Elvis barked. "You'll get fed in a minute," she told the puppy.

"See daddy! Mommy doesn't burn them!" Audrey said pointing to her pancakes when Clint sat down next to her. He looked up at Emma and waited for an answer as to how she made kitty pancakes. She held up a kitty shaped cookie cutter.

"Cheater," he said with a smile.

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled as she handed him pancakes.

Within 15 minutes, everyone was down eating breakfast when the elevator doors opened and out stepped Phil Coulson.

"Coulson! What are you doing back so early?" Natasha asked.

"Making sure that you lot stay in check and out of trouble," he said handing Emma a copy of the _Daily Bugle_. The front page headline was a picture of her and Tony from the park the previous day with the headline: **'NEW GIRL FOR STARK? WHAT HAPPENED TO PEPPER POTTS?'**

"What the hell is this garbage?" Emma asked throwing the paper on the table.

Everyone glanced at the headline. "Well I guess that settles it. I need to call a press conference," Tony said standing up.

"And what are you going to say, Mr. Stark?" Coulson asked.

"The truth. That the woman in this picture is my sister."

* * *

**_AN: I know that I didn't kill off Edith Barton like in the comic books, but I have something planned for her in a bit. Just a little tid bit for ya'll. So I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and please leave me feedback!_**


	23. Chapter 23

_**Disclaimer and AN: As usual, I don't own them…but Emma is mine. Audrey too. So enjoy and leave me some loving please. It helps me write faster.**_

* * *

**Chapter 23:**

"Absolutely not!" Emma said folding her arms across her chest. "I refuse to be apart of this. It's your name on the front page of the paper. You deal with it."

"But you're in the picture with me! Without you there, how am I going to explain who you are," Tony said pleading.

She glared at her brother then at Coulson. Her eyes then fell upon Pepper Potts who was standing in the far corner of the room, trying to stay out of the to line of fire between the Stark siblings. "What would you do Pepper?" Emma asked running her fingers through her tangled hair.

"I would have the lawyers do most of the talking, try to keep Tony's mouth shut and then just sit there and look pretty."

"Or we go public with S.H.E.I.L.D." Nick Fury said entering the room. "That would solve everything since it was S.H.E.I.L.D. who took care of Emma at Howard's request to an extent and it is S.H.E.I.L.D. who Emma works for now. Besides, the public already knows that S.H.E.I.L.D. is a multinational governmental agency."

"Excuse me?" Emma asked a bit confused. "Wouldn't that compromise even more of what S.H.E.I.L.D. does?"

"Not if the daughter of one of its founding members is the public face of the agency." Fury said with a smile.

"That would compromise my ability to go undercover!" Emma argued.

"You know we have technologies that can help with that. Besides you're also an Avenger – you've been more of a solider than a spy for years. Especially since Barton taught you how to shoot."

"A bit of a Lady Hawk, hun? Are you as good as he is?" Tony asked. "Cause he's real good."

Emma didn't say anything else as she fumed over having to become a public figure. She did not want this. She did not need this. Her family did not need this either. Was she going to be harassed every time that she went out in public for now on?

"The only way I will agree to any of this is if Coulson writes everything that is going to be said and Tony sticks to the cards." Emma finally said.

"The last time I tried that, it didn't work." Coulson said.

"Yeah I'm not much of a play-it-by-the-cards type of guy." Tony added.

"Well this time you are or I will melt every single one of your Iron Man suits with my bare hands," she said with an evil smile. "And I mean it."

"But I have security…"

"And I can over ride JARVIS."

"I'll have the cards ready by this afternoon." Coulson said cutting off the siblings. "When are we going to have the press conference?"

"Tomorrow morning, bright and early." Tony said.

Coulson and Fury agreed with that and left Tony's office to go work on the necessary items for the next day along with contacting the lawyers who did know about Emma's existence.

"Now you'll need to get a business suit to wear, Emma. Pepper can help you out with that."

Tony turned his attention to his fiancée. "You know what works, Pepper. Dark, professional, not too many colors."

"I've got it covered, Tony. I've done this many times before," she said kissing his cheek and motioning for Emma to follow her out of the room. Once they were out of earshot, Pepper turned to her future sister-in-law and smiled. "Plus, this gives me a reason to go shopping," she said.

Emma laughed.

"How about we take Audrey and see if Natasha wants to go. Then we can make a girls day of it," Pepper suggested.

"That would be a great idea!"

* * *

"So Fury is just going to allow all the information about S.H.E.I.L.D. to become public?" Clint asked later that afternoon once Emma and Pepper had returned from their shopping trip. Audrey had gone with them, but Natasha had declined this trip since she needed to work more with Steve and Thor on bringing them into the 21st century. She had convinced Bruce to help her that day. Overall the day had been successful.

"I don't think all of it. Just enough to get reporters off my back." Emma said as she put away the dress suit that she had been forced to buy against her will. But she had made up for it in buying several cute tops and a killer pair of high heels that matched her suit. She'd wear them tomorrow to make herself look taller since she could use the extra height standing next to Tony who seemed to tower over her. She also bought Clint a new shirt and tie to go with the black suit he owned and a new summer dress for Audrey – complete with ladybugs on it, that Audrey had picked out on their shopping trip.

"And you're going to stand up and talk?"

"Yes...but I'm only going to answer a few questions."

"Where am I supposed to be during this press conference?" he asked, standing up and pulling her into his arms.

"Either up front with me or standing in my direct eye sight. You know I hate to give speeches."

Clint smiled and kissed her lips softly. "I'll be right by your side, always."

* * *

Emma sat straight and tall, not letting the glares of the various reporters – from print to television to Internet – get to her as everyone began to assemble in the lobby of Stark Tower. On one side of her sat Tony and on the other sat Clint. Pepper Potts sat on the other side of Tony. Coulson had been weary about allowing Clint to sit with Emma, but eventually gave in since as many times as he could remember Clint could not function without Emma and the same was true for her. That's why they fit so well together and that's why they had made it through all the hell they had gone through.

The other Avengers had shown up as well. They all stood at the back of the room, along with Nick Fury, watching what was going on. Coulson stood off to the side of the podium, making sure that everything ran smoothly. This did not need to turn into a circus. Audrey had been keep upstairs in the apartments with Elvis. She and the puppy were being monitored by the world's most advanced babysitter – JARVIS.

First to speak were the lawyers, who explained why the press conference was called and a little bit of the history behind Emma and why she had to be taken care of. On a screen behind the podium, several family photographs along with Emma's birth certificate were shown. Other images included results of DNA testing that had been done (without Emma's knowledge) along with facial comparisons of Emma to her deceased parents. Anything and everything had to be given to these news hungry reporters who were looking to devour Emma where she sat.

After the lawyers had given their pieces of the information, next was Tony. His part was the longest.

"Now we all get the fact that yes Howard and Maria Stark had a second child. Yes she was in the car on the night of their fatal accident. And yes she did survive the accident, but not without serve injuries. Now being the typically 17 year old, there was no way that a severely injured seven year old could be taken care of properly. But then this is me we are talking about and we all know that I'm hardly capable of taking care of myself at times, let alone my little sister with a traumatic brain injury. To protect her and I both, our parents had laid out specific terms in their will to be carried out if they were to die before either of us were at a certain age. While I was past that age, Emma was not. So instead of knowing that my little sister was suffering from retrograde amnesia, I was simply told that she had died along with my parents. But the truth was that she had been placed in the care of a friend of our father's. She was raised as this woman's niece, fully knowing that her parents had died in a car accident when she was younger and that was the reason why she couldn't remember her childhood and she was also told that 25 years after the car accident, she would learn who her parent really were. I don't know about you, but that would make me curious."

"So Mr. Stark, how were the two of you reunited?" a reporter from _The Daily Telegram _asked.

"Good question. And I was just getting to that. Now while I had essentially been left Stark Industries to run, as my father seemed fit, that wasn't the only thing he left as his legacy. He was also one of the founders of a multi-national agency known as S.H.E.I.L.D., whose sole purpose is to protect the world from the things that we don't really want to think about – wars, drug lords, human trafficking, alien invasions. You name it, S.H.E.I.L.D. probably deals with it. We've all heard a little bit about this agency over the course of recent weeks since the invasion. And while there is still much that must be kept in the dark due to the sensitive nature of the agency itself, there one thing that I can tell you and that Emma does work for them. And it was this agency's decision to reunite the two of us earlier than the 25 years that our parents will had stated. So all that we are asking for right now, is a little peace and quiet so that we can get reacquainted with each other and that our family can mend and grow. Besides you'll have enough to talk about in a few months when Virginia Potts and I get married!"

Hands all around the room shot up as reporters jostled to get the attention of Tony Stark. He motioned for them all to sit down as he held out his hand to Emma. She took a deep breath and shakily got to her feet as she took her brother's hand and moved to the podium. Once up there, she grasped both sides of the podium tightly. Tony decided that he'd better stand up there with her and help keep some of the ammunition of the press down a bit.

"Umm…."

She had no idea where to begin! Tony had been so calm and cool up there giving his little speech about her and about S.H.E.I.L.D. and all she was supposed to really do was answer a few questions. Tony placed a reassuring hand against her back and leaned forward. "Please give her a break. This is her first press conference and she used to taking on the world's toughest criminals and warlords, not talking to the press."

A smile as spread across her face as she looked down at the podium briefly as the press laughed a little. He was actually right about that one.

"Ok so how about we do this." Tony suggested. "We'll take a few questions. JUST a few. Nothing too personal though, gotta give her a little mystery for you lot to figure out."

Emma looked back up as Tony called on a TV reporter from Los Angeles. "Ms. Stark…"

"Actually, it's Barton," Emma said. "I'm married."

From his seat, Clint smiled. He loved it when Emma acknowledged that she was married in the last few weeks.

The reporter corrected herself then continued with her question about Emma's education before joining S.H.E.I.L.D.

"I attended NYU and graduated with a degree in linguistics and a minor in chemistry when I was 18."

"So you are like your brother when it comes to school?" the reporter asked continuing.

"You could say so."

The next few questions were simple ones – how did she like having a hero for a brother? Why hadn't she come looking for him sooner? Was the other man sitting next to her when she had been sitting down her husband?

Emma answered all those questions with ease. Then came a reporter who knew no bounds.

Christine Everhart.

"How can we believe any of what you are saying? All of these documents could have been forged," she said holding up the packet of papers that she and all the other reporters had been given.

Tony wanted to step in and stop this before it got bad. He knew how she could be. But Emma spoke up first.

"Ms. Everhart, it's a simple truth that there are fact and fiction in the world. A lot of what we are told is a fiction to protect all of us from the facts that we really don't want to know. Maybe about ourselves. Maybe about what is actually going on in the world. But this is not one of those fictions. Seven years of my life were wiped out in an instant. Try living with that knowledge everyday of your life, wondering and searching for who you are, where you came from. I always knew that I would eventually find out the truth. I honestly never knew that it would be this."

"You don't remember anything of your childhood?" Christine asked next.

"Like my brother said, I sustained retrograde amnesia from the blow to my head in the accident among the other injuries. Over time some memories did come back, but they were jumbled. And now these memories are slowly beginning to make sense again. I know that I won't be able to remember everything but I remember some."

"So you could be a fraud."

Emma stopped talking and looked up at the ceiling, trying to fight back tears. Who the hell did this reporter think she was? On the podium, she balled her hands into fists that were beginning to turn yellow.

"Calm down, Emma," Tony whispered, placing a hand on her arm. He then turned back to the reporters. "Ok enough for today! Thank you all!"

He quickly ushered Emma over to Clint who kissed her cheek before leading her towards the elevators that led back up to the floors that the Avengers lived on. "You did great, Em. I can take out that reporter if you want," he whispered.

Emma smiled and shook her head no as she leaned into her husband as they walked. She was actually glad that it was over.

They waited a few minutes for Tony, Pepper and the others to join them before heading back up to the apartments. What she really wanted was some time on the shooting range with her favorite handgun and some rounds to let off some steam. Tony had warned her about Christine Everhart before the press conference, but she never thought that she could be so heartless.

* * *

The reporters mingled for a few more minutes before slowly dispersing into the mid morning New York City day. Coulson and Fury stood off to the side assessing to themselves how the press conference went.

"I'm shocked that Stark stuck to the cards," Coulson said.

"Emma wasn't joking about destroying his suits."

"I think most of the reporters accepted the news rather well."

"Yeah, all except her." Fury said motioning with his head towards Christine Everhart.

"What should we do?"

"Let's have a little talk with her."

"I believe that there is a conference room on the second floor that is empty," Coulson said. "no one is supposed to move in until next week."

"Good bring her there."

Fury headed towards the conference room, while Coulson approached Christine Everhart, who was finishing gathering her things. "Ms. Everhart, Director Nicholas Fury of S.H.E.I.L.D. would like to speak with you," Coulson coolly said.

She looked at Coulson. "Sure," she said. "Lead the way."

He led her up to the second floor conference room, where Director Fury was sitting in a chair waiting for them both. "Ms. Everhart," he said standing up and shaking her hand. "Have a seat."

Christine sat back down, while Fury sat on the edge of the conference table near her. "Now Ms. Everhart, I am impressed with your stories that you write for _Vanity Fair_ along with the freelancing articles you do as well."

"Thank you, sir."

"But do your editors know how you obtain all your information?" Fury said, taking out a data pad and pulling up some photographs. He handed the pad to her to look at. She gasped as she thumbed through the photos of her in some very compromising positions – both with men and a few women.

"How'd…how'd you get these?"

"Ms. Everhart, the point isn't how I got these, but what you are going to do so that these aren't released. Something like this goes against all ethical codes of journalism, does it not?"

she nodded in agreement.

"Good. So what you are going to do is back off of Emma Barton for one. She isn't lying about who she is. If she had been, then she wouldn't have been nervous up there. Secondly, learn some ethics. And lastly, if you ever report anything negative about the Stark family, the Avengers or even S.H.E.I.L.D., these pictures go public along with the other information that we have on you."

"What other information?" she asked nervously.

Fury simply smiled. "Wouldn't be a surprise then."

He looked at Coulson. "We're done here."

Coulson nodded then motioned for Christine Everhart to follow him out. He led her back to the lobby. "Have a good rest of the day," he said.

"Wait!"

Coulson turned around.

"Your boss is serious isn't he?"

"Very."

And with that, Coulson walked away.

* * *

The 50 m target exploded in flames.

Dammit.

Emma lowered the bow and arrow that she had readied to fire and headed for a near by fire extinguisher. Clint would kill her if his target were burned to ash. She quickly doused the flames, but it was still charred. This was not her day.

First she had to face that annoying Christine Everhart who was a bitch. Then she ran out of ammo that she had brought down to the shooting range. She still needed to let off steam, so she grabbed the extra bow and quiver of arrows that Clint had down there and headed for the archery range. She wasn't as good as he was – since he could hit damn near anything – but she could at least hit the 50 m target.

She had fired several arrows in rapid succession, nailing the target in and around the bulls eye each time. Becoming a tad frustrated, she hadn't realized that she had grabbed an explosive arrow and fired it by mistake, thus setting the target on fire.

"You know I don't think that the target is supposed to be on fire," steve said as emma finished putting out the target's flames.

She shrugged her shoulders. "it was a mistake. Explosive arrow head."

Steve took the fire extinguisher from her and put it back where it had been hanging on the wall then turned back to look at her. "You ok?"

"I've been better when I didn't have bitch reporters making accusations that are false." Emma said putting up Clint's extra equipment.

"Yeah that reporter was rude."

"That's putting it mildly," Emma said heading for the elevator so that she could head to the common room and get something to drink. "You coming?" she asked.

Steve had wanted to lift some weights but he'd rather talk to Emma at the moment. He hadn't had a chance to really talk to her one on one and he had been dying to. He wanted to know more about Peggy. He followed her onto the elevator.

"So I've been wanting to talk to you about Peggy…" he quietly said.

"What about her?" Emma asked.

"Anything!"

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. They both walked out into the common room. Tony and Clint were playing a video game, while Audrey was busy trying to get Elvis to play with her instead of sleep and Thor was being amused by this video game that Clint and Tony were playing. Natasha and Bruce were missing. Bruce was most likely in his lab while Natasha just wanted to be left alone. Pepper had left on a business trip shortly after the press conference.

Emma grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed out onto the balcony, where there was a small table and chairs. Steve followed her.

"My Aunt Peggy was the sweetest person in the world. She knew just how to make me feel better whenever I was upset. And growing up, I was upset a lot. When she first took me in, she would tell me stories about you at night before I would go to bed about the things you did during the war and what your dreams were. But I heard something else in her voice too. I heard sadness. She did love you. I think that was partially why her first marriage failed. She never got over you." Emma said getting lost in her thoughts.

Steve didn't say anything as Emma continued.

"What I wouldn't give to see her face if she could see you now. I bet that her face would light up with her huge smile and she would finally get that dance with you that she wanted for so long."

"Really? She talked about that dance I promised her?"

"Yeah."

He smiled a bit. "Anything else?"

"She always told me that she knew you were really gone. No matter what anyone else told her. And from what I've ready in my father's diaries, he was the same way. They both believed that you were still alive – somewhere out there."

Steve smiled even more. "Thanks Emma," he said. "I needed to hear that."

"No problem."

* * *

Evenings at Stark Tower had begun to change somewhat since Audrey had moved in. Clint and Emma spent more time with their daughter and less time with the team at night, but this wasn't always the case. There were some nights that the entire group would go out and grab something to eat together and other nights everyone was left to fend for themselves. Or on occasion, Emma would cook. She swore up and down that she was going to teach everyone how to cook because she was getting tired of doing it all the time.

That evening everyone was fending for themselves. Clint knew that Emma was still a bit stressed from the day's previous events so he opted for some family time with his two leading ladies. He was going to take them out for a hopefully quiet dinner then out to see a new movie that Audrey had been begging them both to go see.

While they were off doing that, everyone else opted to go out and grab a pizza. Thor had fallen in love with pizza. He loved the meat and the cheese. He would make sure that all his friends in Asgard knew of this dish.

"And we hope that they enjoy it as much as you do buddy," Tony said as the group walked back to the tower.

Steve dragged behind the group a bit. Natasha was the only one who really noticed. "Hey you ok?" she asked, hanging back to walk with him.

"Yeah, just thinking. I'm going to take a walk. I'll be back in a little while," he said.

She looked at him worriedly.

"Don't worry I have that cell phone thingy with me incase I get lost. I'll call."

"Ok," she said nodding as she caught back up with the others.

Steve watched them head down the busy street as he turned and headed off in a different direction. He knew exactly where he was going and who he needed to see.

* * *

"You think you can get anything out of him?" Fury asked.

"Maybe," Steve said looking through the two-way mirror into the interrogation room where Winter Solider sat, chained to the table and chair. Two armed S.H.E.I.L.D. agents stood and either side of him.

"Good luck with that."

Steve nodded then entered the room. He moved to sit in the empty chair across from Winter Solider…no Bucky sat.

"What do you want?" he snarled at Steve.

"You really don't remember do you?"

"Remember what?"

"Who you really are," he said taking a photo out of his jacket pocket and sliding it across the table so that it rested in front of Winter Solider. "You're not Winter Solider. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes."


	24. Chapter 24

_**Disclaimer and AN: I don't own the Avengers….just borrowing them for a bit. But Emma and Audrey are mineeeee. So enjoy this chapter and please leave feedback. Sorry its short, but sometimes I need them to be – short, sweet and to the point. **_

_**Ciao!**_

* * *

**Chapter 24:**

"You don't remember anything do you?" Steve asked.

There was no response as Winter Solider looked down at the picture in front of him again. It was definitely of himself and a sickly skinny young man who looked about his age, but much shorter. It could be a forgery for all he knew. He looked back up.

"Everyone called you Bucky. You are – were my best friend. We did everything together. You even on more than one occasion tried to find a gal to go on a date with me."

Still no response.

So Steven kept on going.

* * *

After Fury had heard that name Steve called Winter Soldier, things began to click. He had a nearby agent go dig out a file from all of the stuff on Captain America and bring it to him. "Here's the file you wanted sir," an agent said handing Fury an old U.S. army personnel file a few minutes later. He immediately opened up the file and looked at the aged picture inside.

"We'll I'll be…" he muttered aloud. He turned back to look at the agent who was waiting for further instructions. "Contact Coulson and tell him that Agent Romanoff, Dr. Banner and Agent Carter need to get here immediately."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

"Why couldn't this wait 'til morning?" Emma asked whining a bit as they rode in the S.H.E.I.L.D. SUV to HQ. "I've had a day from hell."

Coulson and Natasha glared at her through either the rear view mirror or turning around and looking at her, while Bruce actually agreed with her. It was almost midnight and they were all supposed to report to S.H.E.I.L.D. HQ for some unknown reason. This had better be good.

"Well sorry! I'm just not used to being pulled out of bed at damn near midnight! I haven't been on active duty in almost 5 years! I've grown accustomed to sleep." she said trying to defend herself.

"I'd have to agree with Emma." Bruce said speaking up. "Why are just the three of us being called in and not everyone?"

"Not sure," Coulson said continuing to drive. "I'm just doing what Fury requested."

By that time they had reached HQ, where Fury and Steve greeted them at the entrance. "What are you doing here?" Natasha asked.

"We'll talk inside." Fury said directing everyone inside.

The group followed the director into the closest conference room and sat down around the large table. The trio waited for either the director or Steve to tell them what the hell was going on.

"We've finally figured out who Winter Solider really is." Fury said sliding a folder across the table towards them. Emma reached for it and opened it up, reading the name on the inside. "James Buchanan Barnes aka Bucky Barnes. Born…whoa, wait, this isn't right!"

She handed the folder to Bruce who looked at the information with Natasha looking over this shoulder. "This doesn't make sense. Winter Solider looks no older than Steve does," Bruce said. "And there was never any other candidates for the super solider serum because of Erskine's death. How can this be?"

"We're not sure," Steve said speaking up. "I've tried talking to him, but he only shows anger towards me. He was my best friend. I've got to know what happened to him."

"That is where the three of you come in." Fury said. "Natasha you and Emma try talking to him again now that we know a little bit more about his background while Dr. Banner will run a series of tests on him."

"Tests first," Emma said. "Those take the longest."

"Fine," Fury said.

"And," Natasha added. "Is there video footage of Steve and Bucky's first conversation?"

* * *

While Bruce ran the various tests on Bucky, Emma and Natasha sat back and watched the video footage of the first conversation between Steve and Bucky. One thing that both of the spies noticed was that when Steve had showed Bucky the picture of him, he had paused when he looked at it.

"Do you remember anything about your training?" Emma asked while they were waiting for their second chance to talk to Bucky. They were standing outside the infirmary, while Dr. Banner was finishing the last of his tests on Bucky.

"Very little. When I found out that it was all a farce, I sought to escape. That was when Clint was dispatched to end me. But he flipped me instead."

"Yeah I knew that. Did he ever tell you why he couldn't kill you?"

"No."

"Because you reminded him of me. And he saw something in you that S.H.E.I.L.D. could use. That was why he made a different call." Emma said turning and walking down the hallway from the infirmary back towards the interrogation rooms.

Natasha turned and watched her for a second before following after her. Perhaps she had been wrong in judging Emma at first – really wrong. She had never known the real reason why Clint hadn't killed her that day almost five years ago. Nonetheless, Natasha had been thankful for it. Maybe there was more to Emma then she had originally thought.

* * *

"Are you going to shoot me?" Bucky asked, as he was lead into the interrogation room where Emma and Natasha sat waiting for him.

"Sadly no," Emma said. "But according to what Dr. Banner has already found out, a bullet to the arm really wouldn't slow you down that much unless I shot you in the right arm since your left one is cybernetic."

"Why does that matter?"

"It just shows us that whoever taught you what you know and who funds you, knew what they were doing." Natasha said.

"But they are the same ones who trained you, Agent Romanoff."

Natasha didn't say anything as she glared at the man who sat in front of her. She was about to say something, when Bruce entered the room. He motioned for them both to come with him. Two S.H.E.I.L.D. agents entered the room and took Bucky back into protective custody so that he could be led back to his cell.

"There's no way that we're going to get anything out of him," Bruce said handing Natasha an image of Bucky's brain scan. Emma looked over her shoulder at it.

"Ok I really don't understand this, doc," she said. Emma nodded in agreement.

"Neurotransmitters." Bruce said, pointing one out. "All throughout his brain and it looks like along his spinal column as well. He was made into the perfect solider that the Russians wanted during the Cold War."

"Have you figured out how he could stay so young?"

"Not yet," Bruce said. "I'll know more in a few days. But unless we figure out a way to get those neurotransmitters out of his body or firing a different message to his brain, there's nothing that we can do."

* * *

Steve watched from a distance as Bucky was led back to his cell. He had failed his best friend for a second time.

The first time had been over 70 years ago on that train.

This wasn't how things were supposed to be.

"Steve?"

He turned his head a bit to see Emma move next to him in the hallway. "I failed him again," he muttered.

"I wouldn't say that," Emma said. "He showed a sign of curiosity during your first talk with him when you showed him that picture."

"What do you mean?"

"He paused and looked at it. Then he was looking at if for a few seconds. That is curiosity in the spy world."

"I hope you're right."

"Actually that was Natasha who pointed it out first. But anyways, we're heading back to the tower to actually get a few hours of sleep. Are you coming too?"

Seeing as there was little else he could do at HQ that night, Steve gave in and followed Emma to the black S.H.E.I.L.D. SUV that was waiting to take them back to the tower. He hoped that there was someway that he could help Bucky remember his past.


	25. Chapter 25

**_Disclaimer: I don't own the Marvel characters, but Emma and Audrey are mine!_**

* * *

**Chapter 25:**

Audrey loved having her daddy around all the time now. She would never tell her mommy that she missed him whenever he was gone, because she knew that it would make her mommy sad, but she did miss him a lot. But now everything was better! She also loved all her new "uncles" and her aunt Natasha too.

While her parents had explained to her that her uncle Tony was her only real uncle, she still called all their other friends that lived with them "uncles" too. Her favorite "uncle" was Thor because he talked so funny! But she was learning to like all of her uncles for different things. Uncle Tony was good at making her laugh. Uncle Bruce was good at helping her with problems like finding things or fixing her toys that Uncle Thor had broken. Uncle Thor was good for telling her stories with his funny voice while aunt Natasha was good for scaring things away at night if daddy or mommy where not around.

Yet her Uncle Steve was different. Audrey noticed that he didn't talk to the others a lot, but kept to himself a lot. He still sat with them all while they watch a movie or something. He seemed to like to watch her play with Elvis. He usually smiled a lot then. He also liked to go to the gym a lot. But lately he has been sad. Maybe if she drew him a picture then he would feel better! It always made mommy feel better whenever she drew her a picture to hang up at home. So maybe that's what she needed to do!

* * *

Emma directed the movers where to take the various boxes as they brought them up to the newly renovated apartment home where she, Clint and Audrey would be living. It was amazing what Tony could get done with a little bit of money – well more like her money. But that wasn't the point. This place was amazing. Now only if all the movers would unpack it all as well.

"Mommy, where are my crayons?"

Emma diverted her attention from the movers to Audrey and Elvis, had had appeared out of nowhere. The puppy began to go bonkers – barking at all the movers. Emma quickly picked him up and ushered Audrey out of the way. "I thought I asked you to stay upstairs until I came and got you later."

"I really need my crayons mommy!"

Emma sighed as she handed Elvis back to Audrey. "Stay here and I will go get them. Do you need paper too?"

Audrey nodded. "Lots of it!"

Emma turned and made her way towards Audrey's new bedroom, leaving her daughter and puppy in the living room for just a minute before returning with her tin of crayons and a stack of paper. "Here," Emma said handing it to her daughter and taking Elvis out of her hands. She led Audrey back to the elevator and set Elvis inside. "Jarvis make sure that they both stay in the common room until Clint or I come for them."

"Yes, Agent Carter," the AI said as the doors to the elevator shut and carried Audrey and Elvis back up to the common room.

* * *

As soon as the elevator opened to the common room, Audrey scampered off the elevator with Elvis right behind her. Nobody was currently in the common room, since it was in the middle of the day. She took her crayon tin and stack of paper over to the kitchen table and climbed into the chair, while Elvis scampered off to find one of his chew toys.

For the next little while she tried several different drawings, but she didn't like any of them. Several attempts later, Audrey came up with a picture she liked. She carefully colored in her drawings the best she could and even wrote her name on it in her nicest handwriting like her mommy had been teaching her to do. She smiled at her masterpiece when she was done.

"Mr. Jarvis?" she said allowed.

"Yes, Ms. Audrey?" the AI answered.

"Where is Uncle Steve?"

Knowing that Audrey referred to everyone in the tower differently, Tony had programmed the names she called everyone into Jarvis' memory banks a few days ago just to be on the safe side before he attempted to teach her how to use the AI for simple things such as finding where different people where.

"He is currently in his bedroom," Jarvis replied. "But your mother said to stay in the common room."

Audrey paid no attention to the last comment the AI said as she climbed out of the chair and made her way towards the elevator with her picture in her hand. Seeing that Audrey was ready to play some more, Elvis came running towards her and jumped at Audrey. "No Elvis!" she squealed as she yanked her arms away.

But the puppy didn't listen. He jumped at her and tore the picture that she had drawn for Steve out of her hand. Elvis had thought that Audrey wanted to play with him, not wanting for him to get down. The little girl screamed at the puppy as her ruined picture fell to pieces onto the floor. Elvis quickly ran away and hid from her screams. Audrey sat down in the middle of the floor and began to cry hysterically.

"What's wrong Audrey?" Natasha asked walking off the elevator. She was drying off some sweat from a workout session. She knelt down on the floor next to Audrey.

The little girl sniffled and tried to tell her story, but all her words just got came out in a jumble.

"Okay, calm down and take a deep breath."

Audrey did what her aunt Natasha said.

"Now start over and talk slowly."

"I drew Uncle Steve a picture and I was taking it to him. But Elvis ruined it." Audrey said slowly but getting teary eyed again towards the end.

Natasha gently wiped the tears from Audrey's cheeks then picked up the scattered pieces of paper on the floor. She hated to see this little girl unhappy. Yes, she might have been a little cold towards the idea of a child living in the tower at first, but the more she thought about it and the more she but herself in Emma's position she decided that perhaps it might be the best thing. But she still thought that love was for children. Yet a small part of her deep down wished that this were her daughter with Clint Barton and not his with Emma Carter…but that wasn't the point. There were things that couldn't be changed. And this certainly was not one of those things. Besides she wasn't suited for motherhood. So being an aunt was much better. "Come on," she said, helping Audrey up. "I can help you fix this picture then you can still give it to Steve."

"How?"

Natasha led her back over to the table where she set the torn pieces on the table while she went over to a drawer and took out a scotch tape dispenser. She brought the tape dispenser back over to the table, sat down and got to work repairing the picture for Audrey. And in no time, the picture was almost as good as new.

"There you go," Natasha said handing it to her. "Now you go give it to him and I will keep Elvis busy."

"Thank you Aunt Natasha!" Audrey said scampering out of the chair with the fixed picture clutched tightly in her hand and headed towards the elevators.

As the doors opened on the floor where Uncle Steve's room was, Audrey didn't have to go far to find him. He was waiting for the elevator. "Hey Audrey," he said getting on to the elevator. "You shouldn't be on here by yourself."

"I know!" she said with a big smile. "I was looking for you!"

"Me? Why?"

"I drew you a picture!" she said holding the picture up to him.

Steve picked the little girl up and then took the picture from her. He looked at the taped up picture that she had drawn of two figures – obviously him in his Captain America gear along with his shield and her in a flower dress holding hands. She had drawn them in a meadow with flowers and a sun. Then to seal the deal, she had signed the picture with a heart and her name in what looked like her best 4-year-old handwriting at the bottom of the page. This was quite possibly the sweetest thing that he had ever gotten from anybody before.

"Audrey why did you draw this for me and not your dad?"

"I've drawn daddy lots of pictures before! But you're sad right now and I thought a picture would make you happy!" Audrey said smiling.

Steve smiled at her and kissed her cheek before setting her back down. "Thank you Audrey. Your picture did make me happy."

The elevators door opened again, letting Clint and Tony onto the elevator. "Ahh a classic Audrey one of a kind, Steve." Clint said as he picked up Audrey into his arms as he took notice of the paper that Steve held in his hand. Audrey giggled and Tony huffed.

They all turned to look at him.

"Well I don't have an Audrey original," Tony said acting like a baby. Clint simply shook his head in amazement since he wasn't sure if Tony was trying to be funny or if he was serious, while Steve looked at him confused and Audrey just laughed. "Anyways, moving on," he said getting serious. "Bruce and I think we have figured out a way to get rid of those nasty neurotransmitters on Bucky."

* * *

**_AN: Gotta leave you with some suspense now! This would have been longer, but this has been a long day! But I am happy to report that my sister gave birth to a healthy baby girl so I am an aunt! Yayayaya! So enjoy and please leave me some loving! Oh and if you are thinking that boy Audrey is smart for a four year old…well there is an explanation for it, its just that now is not the time for it….all in good time, all in good time. I promise! Enjoy and Review please!_**


	26. Chapter 26

**_Disclaimer and AN: I don't own any of the Marvel characters – but Emma and Audrey are mine. Whew! Sorry for not updating in a longggg time! I really wanted to focus on getting Lady Hawk finished, which it almost is! So I thought that I would write a little chapter for ya'll just so you would know that I haven't forgotten about you. Anyways, feed back is always welcomed!_**

* * *

**Chapter 26:**

"So you're gonna use these little robot thingys to attack to the neurotransmitters and basically kill them?" Steve asked trying to get the entire idea of what Tony had just explained to him as he looked at the tiny ball of metal in his hand that was no bigger than a grain of sand.

"In layman's terms, yes." Tony said sarcastically, as he pulled up as simulation in the middle of the table for the team, who was sitting around it. "But for those of us who weren't born when dinosaurs walked the Earth, the nanobots are going to upload a virus to the neurotransmitters that will allow us the ability to override the control of the neurotransmitters and hopefully frying their control on Bucky's central nervous system without causing too much damage."

The team watched the simulation run as Tony talked. Everything seemed to

"But the problem lies in that we don't know if it will work or not." Bruce added. "And we don't know exactly how much damage it will cause."

"Then why do it?" Natasha asked.

"This is the only thing that we have been able to come up with," Tony said. "But if it doesn't work, then his body should heal itself."

"The key word is should." Emma said. "You might have the ability to use technology to keep metal from crawling into your heart, Tony. But some people just don't handle medical procedures well."

Tony looked at his sister. There had to be something that she wasn't telling him. He'd bug her later about that. "We've taken that into consideration. That's why if he cannot be put into a medically induced coma, then the procedure isn't going to be done. Plus we'll have the big guy on standby."

"Isn't Bruce assisting?" Clint asked.

"The other big guy," Bruce said pointing at Thor who was busy eating his third pack of Pop tarts in a single sitting. Emma and Clint had reintroduced him to the breakfast food one day last week and since then Thor had been in heaven!

"When are you going to attempt this?" Steve asked.

"Tomorrow." Tony answered.

Emma glared at her brother before standing up from the table and making an excuse that she had to go check on Audrey and Elvis downstairs. That glare intrigued Tony even more. Now he had to find out what was bugging his sister.

* * *

Soon after Emma had excused herself from the Avengers meeting, everyone else had followed suit with their daily activities. Tony made his way to his personal lab.

"Jarvis, pull up Emma's SH.I.E.L.D. medical files and tell me what you can get out of them." Tony told his AI as soon as they were alone. He sat down in front of his bank of computers and started typing away, trying to dig up anything he could on his sister.

"Sir, it seems as if her files are still sealed, even though you both know that you are siblings." Jarvis responded.

"And that's the way they will stay," Emma said standing in the doorway to the lab. Tony had been so lost in his thoughts about what was bugging her, that he hadn't even heard her come in. "If you wanted to know something, then you should have simply asked."

"Would you have told me?"

"In this setting, when it was just you and I, yes." Emma said sitting down on a nearby stool. "Now you obviously want to know why I said what I did earlier."

"Yeah. What happened to you besides the car accident and the thing with your hands?"

"Let's see, besides being used as a human guinea pig, I've been in a medically induced coma at least 3 times since being with S.H.E.I.L.D., I don't have my gall bladder or my spleen, part of my liver is gone too. Oh several bones have been broken including my Humerus, which had to be rehabbed. And to top it all off I suffered a miscarriage from being shot with an arrow through the stomach."

"Who shot you?"

"Clint's fucking brother."

"So just because you don't like going under the knife, you don't want us to try to on Bucky?"

"No that's not what I am saying," she said getting in her brother's face. "What I am saying is that are you 100% perfect sure that this is the only way to get the neurotransmitters out of Bucky? Or is this is a ploy of yours to do some more testing on the system of yours that you have been modifying."

Tony pulled back and eyed her. "How do you know about that? Pepper doesn't even know."

"First off, I am your sister. Secondly, I work for Nick Fury. If I wanted to hack the Pentagon, I could. Jarvis is a breeze. But that isn't the point."

"Then what is?"

"If I find out that this procedure on Bucky was a means of testing for you, I will just let it slip to Steve that you used his best friend for a human guinea pig. Because Steve and hell, even Bruce, both know how that feels like."

"Bruce did it to himself."

"I don't care, it was an accident."

Tony tried to but it, but Emma was having it. "And I'm pretty sure that Steve won't appreciate it either way. So you better think twice before using the nanobots on Bucky."

"But this is…"

"I don't care if it is even in the developmental stage. I'm not an idiot. I can read design plans. Just think about it."

Emma turned and walked out of the lab, leaving tony with his thoughts. And he had quite a few at the moment. The main was that he had was how could he justify the nanobots to Emma.

* * *

Clint gently rubbed the knots out of Emma's neck then moved his way down her shoulders before moving towards her back. He hadn't felt her muscles this knotted up in a long time. "Em?"

"Hmm?" she asked as she savored this random back massage from her husband. She lay stretched out on their bed, curled up with a pillow.

"What's got you all stressed out?" he asked, pressing harder on her back. "We're all moved into our new place. Kaleigh is moving in soon to be Audrey's nanny. All our missions for work are fine. So what is wrong?"

"Tony."

"What do you mean?"

Emma sat up and explained to Clint about the file that she had found during her recent 'exploring' of Jarvis' files along with her confrontation with Tony earlier. "I just don't want him to make Bucky some human guinea pig. I know the feeling all too well."

"I know you do." Clint said pulling her close. She curled up against him and sighed.

"I just hope he does this for the right reasons and not the wrong ones."

"I'm sure he will."

* * *

"Right now the procedure looks like it's been a success." Tony said coming out of the operating room, where Emma, Clint, Steve and Natasha sat waiting for news. "Thor is helping Bruce secure Bucky once again to move back to recovery then we shall just wait and see what happens."

"That didn't take long," Natasha said.

"Nope," Tony said. "Just had to make sure that the nanobots got into his system and knew what to do and were doing it. So far, so good!"

Emma looked at Tony and smiled. "I hope so."

* * *

"Give him enough time to recovery under their watch." Fury said remotely monitoring the Avengers team.

"Then what?" Coulson asked.

"He's moved to the Vault. He'll become too much of a flight risk."


End file.
